If a local Bourbon County resident’s plans come to fruition, Bourbon County will have a new monument in front of the courthouse. John Snalt, a graduate of Fort Scott High School, is raising funds to put a large commemorative pylon on the courthouse lawn.

“We are constantly making history in Bourbon County, and this monument will be a way for future generations to appreciate what has been accomplished,” Snalt explained. He said he wants to make sure that people 100 years from now can fully appreciate all the hard work that went into keeping Bourbon County alive.

The pylon is designed to have four sides. One side will cover achievements related to education. “The goal is to record noteworthy events,” he said. “We’d like to list the number of graduates in the county each year and any relevant educational achievements made in the county.”

Another side would be dedicated to achievements in sports. “When a local team gets to state finals, we want to make sure people remember it,” said Snalt. He said seeing what your community has done in the past is a good way for future generations to aim high themselves.

Another side will be dedicated to business achievements and show new businesses that have opened or places that have closed.

The fourth side would be dedicated to local government and highlight key events. “This side of the monument will help record the names of people serving in local government as well as notable events and achievements,” explained Snalt.

The monument will start out mostly blank, so information can be added each year. “We want this to be a type of living historical record where the acts and achievements of today are recorded for the future,” said Snalt.

Originally, the monument was designed to be 20 feet tall in order to accommodate records for the next 50 years. However, recent events have sent Snalt back to the drawing board to design a much larger monument.

Based on rapid turnover in the county commission, Snalt says a 20-foot monument would only have enough room to handle the records for the next two years.

“Don’t forget we don’t want this to just be a dry record of names,” he said. “We want more of what was actually happening. That includes the good and the bad, so we plan to include things like the significant lawsuits that the county is involved in.”

Snalt said that when the current commissioner turnover and the vast number of lawsuits being started are taken into consideration, the monument will need to be approximately four and a half miles high. That larger size requires a much larger budget. Snalt is hoping for local residents to join the cause and help him raise the approximately 3 trillion necessary for the granite needed in construction. “We hope to have enough donors to start construction in exactly one year from today on April 1st.”

Snalt was previously involved in the efforts to build a snake pit in Gunn Park back on April 1st, in 2024, and inspired the alligator petting zoo plans from April 1st, 2025.