Posted on Mon, Apr. 28, 2008

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

"We the students in the sixth-grade class in Caldwell, Kansas, feel that Kansas should have a state reptile... We also feel that the ornate box turtle would be a good choice for such an animal."
--18 students from Caldwell, Ks. 1986

Her name was Tina, and she was an ornate box turtle.

For a turtle, she made fast tracks -- traveling in the spring of 1986 as a political lobbyist from Caldwell to Topeka and around the state, using her rock star status to convince Kansans that they should have a state reptile. Not just any reptile, but an ornate box turtle.

The ornate box turtle received its title as state reptile April 14, 1986, when Gov. John Carlin signed the bill in Caldwell. The following October, the mayor of Caldwell signed a proclamation declaring Caldwell the ornate box turtle capital of the world.

News of Tina and her classmates was covered by the major television networks as well as several major newspapers and radio stations. Parts of the bill signing were transmitted around the world.

In a letter to legislators, the students used logic to sway politicians to Tina and her relatives.

The turtle, they said: "Is often observed by Kansans, and liked by most. It is native to our state. It is a harmless animal."

An editorial in the Wichita Eagle on Nov. 10, 1985, boosted their campaign:

"Though some states have state reptiles, none has the ornate box turtle. It would be uniquely Kansan, then, and an intriguing representative of the state."

The paper encouraged readers to contact their legislators if they agreed.

And readers did. So did the students, who started their campaign as a class civics project.

The students wrote to every state senator and representative. They printed buttons, posters and T-shirts promoting the turtle.

But the campaign stalled when Ron Fox from Prairie Village, then chairman of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told the students his committee was too busy with bills on the state water plan to have hearings on a state reptile.

Even their representative, Robert Miller from Wellington, said the campaign was silly.

"I've got one to make milk the official state drink in my committee that I couldn't get to," Miller told an Eagle reporter. "There is one on an official state soil that's in the Agriculture Committee. It just takes a tremendous amount of time, because one of them starts moving and everybody tries to amend theirs into it. You get bogged down in silliness, even though they are well-intentioned people."

But the students didn't give up. They campaigned harder and into the next school year.

Finally, Tina and the students won.

The House passed the bill on March 21, 1986, with 77 votes in favor, 47 against. The Senate followed, passing the bill 33-7 on April 2.

Tina moved on to the University of Kansas Natural History Museum in Lawrence.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.