High Plains Journal’s new home in Dodge City meets need, adds value
Legacy is based on value.
Farmers and ranchers and the businessmen and women they work with have long valued relationships in which a handshake is your bond. At High Plains Journal we share that trust with our readers.
Farmers and ranchers also look for opportunities to make their operation more efficient. They will modify their crop rotation or look for hybrids that will be drought tolerant. Livestock producers will review expected progeny differences to make decision on their cattle operation.
Also, farmers and ranchers may look to change the way they use grain bins and machinery to increase their efficiency. Those decisions are never made in haste and always subject to a deliberate process that involves family input.
HPJ also takes a similar approach. Elsewhere in this week’s edition, readers will note several important changes to our operation. Three-and-a-half years ago HPJ made the decision to print each week’s edition offsite and changed our facility needs.
Recently we moved our operation from 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Boulevard to 11142 Kliesen St., which is right off U.S. Highway 50 bypass.
The decision to stay in Dodge City, Kansas, was the right one. With more than 70 years of history our roots are entrenched here. Dodge City is in the heart of High Plains agriculture. From our new location we will be able to better serve our present and foreseeable needs.
The company, through its leadership of owner Nelson “Spence” Spencer Jr., made a gift to Dodge City so the HPJ’s iconic Kansas Wheat Shock will be on display in the historic downtown.
The statue is symbolic of the story and continued legacy of HPJ. Well-known artist Hoss Haley was commissioned to build the sculpture as a young man and created an eye-catching wheat statue that travelers always commented on. Erected in 1981, it was also a reminder, Haley said, that wheat is a sustainable crop and longtime staple of southwest Kansas landscape and economy.
Like farmers and ranchers who cherish a barn that once served as the focal point of a farm, we too, will have many fond memories of our former site and most importantly the past and current employees who made HPJ what it was and is today, a publication that distributes in 12 states on a weekly basis and offers digital media, marketing services and events to complement its weekly newspaper.
That relationship is cemented in our legacy and will continue for many years in our new Dodge City home.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].
