MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

by Taylor Zucher Key

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “I WAS THE CITY'S TALISMAN, comforting and protective. Rising above the southwest edge of Topeka, Kansas, the hill was known as Burnett's Mound. More than just a landmark, to the Indians it had been a source of safety, and their legend remained. It was claimed that no tornado could ever get by the massive mound, that it would deflect the force of any funnel. The belief was reassuring. Few people remembered, if they had ever known, that according to the dry and unsentimental records of the United States Weather Bureau seven tornadoes had in fact touched ground in Topeka since 1897. Perhaps the facts were easy to forget because these earlier tornadoes had caused minimal damage; tornadoes that…”

University of Washington Press. 1970. 209p.