'Home On the Range'This remote cabin, on the banks of West Beaver Creek in Smith County, is where the Kansas state song was born. The song is based on a poem written by Dr. Brewster M. Higley, who homesteaded here in 1871. He provided the poem to a friend, Dan Kelly, who set it to music now famously known as "Home On the Range." Brewster's cabin, which he built in 1872, has survived to earn a listing on the National Historic Register. It and the surrounding 240 acres today are owned by a local nonprofit foundation, which led a cabin restoration effort in 2013. The dirt-floor cabin and grounds, which include hiking trails along the heavily wooded creek, are open to the public year-round.

This remote cabin, on the banks of West Beaver Creek in Smith County, is where the Kansas state song was born. The song is based on a poem written by Dr. Brewster M. Higley, who homesteaded here in 1871. He provided the poem to a friend, Dan Kelly, who set it to music now famously known as "Home On the Range." Brewster's cabin, which he built in 1872, has survived to earn a listing on the National Historic Register. It and the surrounding 240 acres today are owned by a local nonprofit foundation, which led a cabin restoration effort in 2013. The dirt-floor cabin and grounds, which include hiking trails along the heavily wooded creek, are open to the public year-round.