by Veronica Coons
vcoons@gbtribune.com

Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.

The Hotel Cook
One hundred years ago, Great Bend welcomed the opening of The Hotel Cook, located across the street from the courthouse at 14th and Kansas. The hotel proprietor, John H. Wood, offered an extravagant New Years Dinner with special music to mark the occasion.
A half-page ad featured the menu, including 15 starters, meats including boiled shoulder of spring lamb, saute of calves brains in black butter, veal fricassee, roast prime rib with au jus, stuffed turkey with oyster dressing, and chicken salad, several breads, desserts, fruits, nuts, cookies, crackers and after dinner mints.
“To the Public: In the Cook Hotel, the undersigned knows that he is offering the traveling public and the people of this section of Kansas the best service obtainable and believes they will agree with him. Only one standard is recognized in the Wood Hotel Service and that is the best. Your patronage is invited and we hope to meet your approval and approbation and to merit your support.”
A front page news story described the amenities of the hotel.
“The entire upper part of the building is arranged in rooms that are large and airy and which can be thrown into suites, if necessary. Every bit of furniture in these rooms is new. High priced iron beds, the best grade of springs and mattresses, rocking chairs and bureaus, and a rug constitute the furnishings of each room. In the suite of rooms in the front part of the building, there will be lavatories and in every room there will be a telephone. Two large rooms on the second floor will be fitted, one as a rest room for ladies and the other as a reading room and place where the guests of the hotel who wish to get away from the lobby, may find quiet and a chance to work undisturbed.”
The hotel was to be operated on “both the European and American plans.” Then, as today, that meant guests could choose to either have some meals included in the price of their stay (American), or they could pay only for their lodging, and dine anywhere they chose (European).
Clearly, the boasting was just that. At the time, several hotels were available in downtown Great Bend, just as large or larger, though perhaps not as modern at the time. At some point in the subsequent 20 years, the hotel changed hands, becoming the Mazda hotel. According to Karen Neuforth, historian and researcher at the Barton County Historical Society museum, the Mazda hotel was the only building in Great Bend to be “bombed” by a B-29 bomber. As one passed over the city, somehow a life raft came loose, and fell in front of the hotel. The impact sent the device that inflated it into someone’s neighboring yard. Today, the building is occupied by the law offices of Robert L. Feldt, P.A.


New bridge opened
It was also reported New Year’s day in 1914 that the county commissioners had made their final settlement with the Kansas Construction Company, hired to build, “the finest bridge in Central Kansas, the big cement bridge across the Arkansas at this point,” and the old wooden bridge would be removed at once.
According to the story, the company actually took a loss in the build, but did not complain.
“The best thing about this new bridge,” said Commissioner Cick of Ellinwood,” Is that it has been erected without costing the people of Barton County one cent.” The story went onto explain the commissioner’s figuring. The repairs that the bridge sustained during a 1913 flood and the anticipated maintenance costs of the old bridge over the next eight years would have exceeded the cost of building the new bridge, and a new bridge would still be needed in the end.
“The first person to cross the bridge after it was opened to traffic...was Karl Schneider, one of the prominent south side farmers. Grant Jones and six other south part of town men drove across earlier than Mr. Schneider but before the structure had been accepted. So each are entitled to claim what ever distinction there may be in that proceeding.”
The 1914 bridge was eventually replaced with today’s bridge sometime in the second half of the last century.

Tarzan
The Tribune planned to feature the popular newspaper serial version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes later in January of 1914. We did some digging, and found the book had been written by Burroughs and copyrighted by Frank A Munsey, the publisher of All-Story magazine, in 1912. In 1913, it appeared in many newspapers around the country as a condensed serial, and in 1914, the book in its entirety was published. It was not the version published in All-Story.
To see the entire serialized version of the novel, you can access it at the following website: http://www.erbzine.com/mag17/1750.html

Bondurant’s
In this age of debate of the pros and cons of gun control, it’s interesting to find an add mixed in with the news features on the front page of the Tribune as follows:
“Wise folks keep a good revolver on a shelf hand. When you need it you don’t have time to come to us and buy one. Why not stop some of this mid-night prowling. Dozens of people are getting them. Let us wrap yours up today. Good reliable revolvers $2.75 and $4 at Bondurant’s.”
Bondurant’s was a hardware store that was located at 1311 Main Street.
It was owned and operated by Price and Minnie Bondurant, who lived at 1621 Williams St. Today, the space is occupied by Gambinos restaurant.