Not all in Ellsworth pleased with re-enactment of a public hanging
9/8/2007
By Tim Unruh
Salina Journal
ELLSWORTH -- Josh Choitz wonders why there is such a fuss about his resurrection of a public hanging skit when other portrayals planned for Ellsworth's Great American Cattle Drive and Cowtown Festival are just as controversial.
Choitz, 22, Ellsworth, a Kansas State University at Salina student, is bringing back the hanging skit that was last performed in 1988 during the Ellsworth celebration.
"I just watched 'Gunsmoke' the other day. They were hanging somebody," he said. "The whole thing is centered around the wickedest cowtown. It's all about the Old West."
The 'hanging' will be performed at 3 p.m. Sept. 29 in front of the Ellsworth County Hodgden House Museum Complex.
The Ellsworth celebration begins at noon Sept. 27 with the Great American Cattle Drive -- a fundraiser for the National Drovers Hall of Fame -- and a carnival in downtown Ellsworth.
A highlight will be driving 140 longhorn cattle through Ellsworth, marking the end of the cattle drive at 2 p.m. on the 29th. This year is Ellsworth's 140th anniversary.
The hanging (some call it a lynching) skit has its share of opponents, among them Linda Mowery-Denning, editor and publisher of the Ellsworth County Independent/Reporter. She scolded the Ellsworth County Historical Society in an Aug. 30 editorial for allowing the hanging skit on museum grounds.
"My concern is I don't want Ellsworth to be associated with this," Denning said.
A member of the Drovers Hall of Fame board of directors, she doesn't want the skit to overshadow the weekend's purpose. One goal is to raise money to renovate the former Insurance Building, where the Drovers Hall of Fame will be housed.
A number of activities are planned, including a carnival, ice cream social, community barbecue and Cowtown Idol 2007.
The wrong message
While hangings were a form of justice in the 1870s when Ellsworth was a wild cowtown, Denning said, it sends the wrong message.
"Nobody's denying that a lot of really bad stuff happened during the cowtown era. Lynching is a particularly violent practice of that time. Lynching just creates a whole image. I just don't think we want to go there," she said.
Garnell Hanson said she sees no reason why a fake hanging should be staged, or the "Shooting of Sheriff Whitney," the re-enactment of a real event that is also on the schedule.
"I think the violence should be downplayed, not added to," Hanson said.
The community event needs young people to take part and keep it going, said Tina Davis, chairwoman of the Celebrations Committee, which a major organizer of Cowtown Days.
Davis, the director of rural health clinics at Ellsworth County Medical Center, said she doesn't support violence, but there is a conflict that the community supports a shooting re-enactment, but not a hanging.
"We're going to have bordello girls all around, too, because we had whorehouses in Ellsworth. Is that another contradiction?" Davis said.
Gruesome and gory?
The image of someone getting shot with "blood and internal organs splattered, that's more gruesome and gory than somebody getting hung," said Mark Roehrman, owner of the Ellsworth Antique Mall and chairman of the Drovers board.
"I know there are people who don't care for it, and are just not going to participate," he said
Historical Society board member Ray Thomas, Ellsworth, doesn't understand why the sheriff shooting skit is accepted when the hanging skit isn't.
"If they're so concerned about the message it's putting out, the shooting is just as bad," he said.
As for the possible influences on children, "You see worse than that on TV," Thomas said.
He suggested that the community is condoning the shooting, "and they don't want to show the punishment. The way I see it, it's a re-enactment of the way it was," Thomas said.
Ellsworth resident Peg Britton wrote in her Internet blog at kansaspairie.net, that there could be fallout from the skit, "even if the hanging doesn't actually cause the 'hangee's' eyes (to) burst out of the sockets and neck to break with sickening sounds. Maybe they intend to inject the smells of death as well for more realism."
Jesse Manning, who Josh Choitz said is a former Ellsworth resident, countered on the blog: " ... Despite an almost universal abhorrence to the practice, we should never forget it. We should not try to hide it. We should not cover it up for the sake of trying to make our modern selves look better. We do not have to actively promote it, but we should always remember it -- study it, learn from it, examine the instances and the reasons and the consequences ... "
The publicity could help
Roehrman said he harbors "no ill will" against the hanging skit opponents. In fact, it might help bring more people to town.
"A little controversy will create a little more excitement. That doesn't bother me. If people will come and see us, that's what we want," Roehrman said.
The skit starts with a card game that results in a murder, and after a short trial, four men are hung in a set of metal gallows. The condemned will have nooses around their necks, but the ropes are not tied to anything. Choitz said the players will be wearing safety harnesses to protect them in case someone slips.
"The worse thing that could possibly happen is someone will fall on their knees," Choitz said.
Illusion of a hanging
It is an illusion of a hanging, said Dave Koralek, Ellsworth, Choitz's cousin, who chaired the hanging skits from 1985 to 1988.
"Nobody liked it until we quit it, and then (they said) 'Where's it at?' " Koralek said.
Josh's father, Darrell Choitz, is surprised at the attention the skit is getting. He played the role of a bartender in the skit during the 1980s, and Josh's mom, Cindy Harms, played a saloon girl.
"Good Lord, you wouldn't believe the opposition he's coming up against. Our editor in chief here is really raising a fuss," Darrell Choitz said.
All you see is the "optical illusion" of men hanging with masks over their heads, Koralek said.
"When I did this 20 years ago, safety was the first issue," he said.
The hanging skit organizers plan to preface the performance with a statement warning people of what they will witness and give them an opportunity to leave the audience, Josh Choitz said.
He helped with the sheriff-shooting skit last year.
"After we did it, a lot of people asked if we were going to do the hanging again. It sparked my interest," Josh Choitz said.
Of the nearly 20 people helping out with the hanging skit, two are preachers, Josh Choitz said.
Publicity over a hanging strays from the Drover group's goal of celebrating the rugged cowboys and determined pioneers who shaped Ellsworth, Denning said.
"Everybody's really thrilled that this has brought out some young volunteers. I just wish there was a little different project to rechannel the enthusiasm," she said.
