‘Life & Times of the Buffaloes’ – A History of Garden City High School

GARDEN CITY, Kan. (KSNW) — Garden City was established as a Kansas town in 1879. Five years later, in 1884, the first Garden City High School opened for classes.

The first graduating class in 1888 had five members. The Buffaloes’ latest class in 2023 had 438 graduates.

These are the kinds of details you will find in “Life & Times of the Buffaloes” – A History of Garden City High School. The comprehensive book, researched and written by Garden City resident Brett Marshall, was published late last summer.

Marshall, who grew up an hour west in Syracuse, is a wealth of knowledge about Garden City High School after spending two-and-a-half years diving deep into the high school’s history.

“You know, I’ve always had an interest in history. That’s my minor degree with political science and history. So I just, I love history,” said Marshall, a graduate of Seward County Community College and the University of Kansas School of Journalism.

The former newspaper sports writer was tasked in 2019 with writing a book about the Home of the Buffaloes. His work was interrupted for a year by COVID-19.

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“I hadn’t written a book. I copy-edited books. I’ve helped put the books together. Hired graphic designers and all of those other things that go into it, and then worked with the printers. But, I’d never sat down and written an entire book,” said the veteran journalist.

Marshall’s extensive research focused on the people, achievements, and facilities at Garden City High School.

“In 138 years, we’ve had four main campus buildings, and that’s it,” he said. “You know, it’s not like we get one every 10 or 15 years. They’ve usually stayed in one building for a long time.”

The current sprawling, state-of-the-art campus opened in 2012.

“It’s a $92 million school, and it’s beautiful. It’s big. Provides a lot of opportunities for the students. You know, we’ve got 2,000 students at the high school. It’s one of the top-10 schools in the state enrollment-wise,” said Marshall. “It’s just been a lot of fun to interact with the students and the teachers, administrators, and the people in the community about finding stuff for the book.”

Garden City has the eighth-largest enrollment in the state, according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association. And the book is big too. The 236 pages are packed with photos from the Finney County Historical Society.

“The book serves as probably the best historical record of the evolution and development and establishment of what we now know at Garden City High School and all of the public schools in the community,” said Steve Quakenbush, executive director of the Finney County Historical Society.

“It tells a big-picture story. Obviously, it doesn’t cover every single thing that’s ever happened at Garden City. But, I think it captures the essence of what the school has been over a period of time,” said Marshall. “How it started, and then how it evolved through different timelines. We connect historical events here in Kansas, and in the nation, and in the world. We tie some things in during World War II to what was going on at the school. The 1930s was The Depression and The Dust Bowl years. There was no yearbook printed for a whole decade, and I think the best we could come up with is that they couldn’t afford it.”

Marshall also focused a lot on pictures.

“The pictures we found at the Historical Society were phenomenal,” he said.

Like so many other cities and towns across the Sunflower State, the high school is the heartbeat of Garden City.

“We have 22 varsity sports for the athletic side of it, but we also have 36 clubs and other activities at the high school. We’ve got a robotics program. We’ve got a fabrics class where the kids makes clothes. We’ve got a culinary program at the high school. A wonderful woodworking and metal works department. There’s just a lot of different opportunities for the high school kids to pick and choose,” explained Marshall.

He describes Garden City and the high school as a “melting pot.”

“We’ve got a large Hispanic population. We’ve got a Somali population. We’ve got a Burmese population. The Garden City School District has 37 different dialects, and they have people who speak all those different dialects to help students and teachers learn how to communicate,” he said.

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Anyone who works in education in Garden City or anyone who calls themselves a Buffalo needs to read this book.

“I think I’m most proud that we’re able to tell the story in a really interesting way. So, people of all ages who have gone to Garden City High School and graduated. A lot of them live in Garden, but a lot of them move away. This will bring back memories, I think, for them,” said Marshall

If you’re interested in ordering a copy of the book, click here.

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