Hide Article Text (OCR)
Russell manBy Tanya BransonHarris News ServiceRUSSELL — On a windy, limestone bluff overlooking the Saline River Valley, a cavelike outcrop of rocks and concrete perpetuates a locallegend of German spies.:;The legend says that two German ifaen built concrete caves high on tRe bluff so they could have a clear view of the Walker air base. In the years America watched the second world war in Europe, the two Germans spied on planes landing and taking off from the former training base between Walker and Victoria.The spies, using the shelters to hold radio equipment, transmitted messages to Germany on their newfangled radios until 1944, the legend says.Their true identities were not discovered by the townspeople for some time because the spies’ German accents fit in well with the descendants of the Volga-German immigrants of Russell. Some stories say they were farmhands and sneaked up to the caves at night to spy-Today, only one small concrete shelter remains on the bluff north of Russell. The approximately 10-by-15-foot structure sits into the hill with limestone rocks haphazardlyspy legendjutting from it. Graffiti have been wrapped around its walls and birds have nested in its corners and ceiling. The door is gone and the one-room shelter seems useless and built for no reason.High school students attending river parties on the Saline look up the bluff at the “German cave” and add and subtract to the legend.John Woelk, Russell, whose family owns the land the German cave is on, calls the legend steep imaginations of young people.“They look up here and see this and start stories. This legend kind of grew up wild,” Woelk said.The legend and myths around the German caves were so profuse that Woelk decided to write a paper for the Russell Public Library in 1968 to set the story straight.However, the paper was not read much and the legend lived on. Woelk explains his paper's failure to disperse the legend: “People want to believe the legend. The true story isn’t as exciting.”The caves were built in 1939 by two ham radio enthusiasts because their equipment could transmit and receive radio signals better from the bluffs high elevation.The early-day radio buffs, Alex Meier and his brother Carl, weretwo of the first electricians in Russell.“(Alex) was quite a tinker; he built a lot of things,” Woelk said.Alex Meier’s interest turned to radio, while it was still In its infancy. He obtained a ham radio operator license in 1924 and started an amateur radio station in his home. He also obtained a temporary license from the Department of Commerce to start a radio broadcast station in Russell.“There were no advertisers and few listeners. Meier estimates there were about 10 radios in the city of Russell, Kansas, in 1924, Woelk’s report says.The live programs were broadcast from the Mainstreet Theatre, but not for long. Because of the expense and technical difficulties, radio station KFQO was dismantled after a few weeks.After the stint with the radio station, Meier turned his interests back to ham operations. By this time, more people had obtained ham licenses and the local reception was abuzz with interference and static. Each operator tried to build a more powerful station to drown out the other operators.“Meier thought this would be a real good place to receive air signals, Woelk said at the bluff last week. After requesting permission from Woelk’s grandfather to build on his land, he and his brother built two caves and a tall tower.One cave, which is no longer standing, housed the power generator and the other remaining cave contained the radio equipment. A 230-foot pipe tower also was built. Woelk pointed out a concrete block that remained of the tower's base.The station operated on 1,000 watts of power, but for only a year.Snowstorms prevented the Meiers from using their station much of the winter, and by the next year, they decided to abandon the station.Meier says his most remote conversation from this station was with another ham operator in Puerto Rico .... There never was any communication with German government or German ham operators, as this range was impossible on ham frequencies at that time, and the station was abandoned long before the United States entered World War n, Woelk wrote in the report.The Meiers moved to Colorado Springs in 1944. Carl is dead, and Alex still lives in Colorado, Woelk said.Woelk said he heard the first rumors of the German caves when he came back to Russel) from law school a few years after World War II. Woelk guessed that the story may have started because of the German influence in Russell., “In World War I, there were incidents where the homes of some of the German descendants were painted yellow, and people still remembered that. But mostly it was young people who spread the legend,” Woelk said.“The Meiers didn’t get associated directly with the legend,” he said.But even though not directly involved in the main legend, the Meiers are tangled up in some myth..“They wanted to run him out of town,” Dean Banker, Russell, remembers as part of the myth. When the Meiers left in 1944, that spurred on the myth, Banker said.“It was close enough to when the war came along that people thought he was out there operating and sending good stuff, to the Germans,” he said.Banker thought the Meiers were Dutch, although Woelk maintains they were German.“He was anything but a German spy; he was a man ahead of his time,” Banker said.
Newspaper Details
Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas, US
Sun, Aug 18, 1985
Page 162
Full Page
Clipped by
Salina P.
KS, USA 27 Jul 2023
Other Publications Near Hutchinson, Kansas
Hutchinson Gazette
Hutchinson Herald
Hutchinson Daily News
Arkansas Valley Home
Hutchinson News Herald
