The Flint Hills Discovery Center explores the history of the Manhattan area through its “Flint Hills Forces: The Shaping of Manhattan, Fort Riley and Kansas State University exhibit this fall.

The exhibit opens at the Discovery Center on September 27 and will remain available to visitors through February 1.

Flint Hills Forces explores the period between 1917 and 1963 when the three areas intertwined to become one community encountering numerous opportunities for change in the 20th century.

Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in human experiences and events including a soldier training for trench warfare during WWI, opulence of the Roaring Twenties a the Wareham Hotel, trying times of the Great Depression, a WWII forward observer’s jeep and supplies and family life around the television in a 1950’s Manhattan living room.

the project is funded in part by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit culture organization promoting the understanding of the history, traditions, and and ideas that shape lives and build community.