Brian Burnes
Freelance Writer
Stories by Brian Burnes
Securing the Cornerstone of the Johnson County Land Boom
The Overland Park Historical Society is moving into arguably the most historic building in Overland Park – the 1906 depot built by railroad entrepreneur William Strang, Jr.
Age of Coronavirus: KC’s Role in Winning the War on Polio
Kansas City played an underappreciated role in conquering polio, a public health scourge with some similarities with the current COVID-19 outbreak.
curiousKC: Winning Access to Fairyland Park
Kansas City's Fairyland Park was a focus of civil rights activists before voters approved a public accommodations ordinance in 1964.
A Game-Changing Legacy
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is marking the centennial of the Negro National League, formed on Feb. 13, 1920 in Kansas City.
A (Blue) River Runs Through Us
In 1975 voters in one of the country’s fastest-growing counties faced a fork in the asphalt. They pondered the construction of three large flood-control reservoirs as part of a $200 million flood-control plan for the Blue River basin presented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If the proposition had been approved, three lakes today…
Dreaming of Fields: A Brief History of Kansas City Ballparks
The history of baseball in Kansas City is rich, detailed and sometimes weird, and it can be told in part through the various clearings, fields or stadiums in which it was played.
Resurrecting Gene Clark’s Recording Legacy
The career-making moment Missouri-born Gene Clark was waiting for in 1974 may now – 45 years later and long after his death – finally be arriving with the reissue of his "No Other" album.
One War Leads to Another
A new exhibit, “The Vietnam War: 1945-1975,” opens at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City on Nov. 8 and runs through next May.
Kansas City-Area Historic Sites Look to Halloween for Haunting Revenue
Nonprofits that own or maintain historic structures across Kansas City are hosting their own ghost tours and paranormal investigations.