The Renner-Brenner Site Park

This site is not financially associated with the City of  Riverside or any other funding, other than your donations.  This is a privately owned sited by Gary Brenner for everyone.

When you donate, please make a note on the donation form that this is for archaeology.

You can search this site here.  Fill in the blank line with your search, then hit the Google Search bar and it will bring up what it can find here.
Saving Renner

The beginning of saving the park actually began with Carolina Brenner Renner herself.  She was the only one in the family who had an interest in the prehistory and along with her husband, Leslie, allowed Wedel and later, Roedl to excavate.


The property was the first in Platte County to be put on the National Register of Historic Places and that occured in 1969.  Carolina was very excited for the placement.


She passed away April 2, 1980.



GARY BRENNER
Carolina's Great Grand Nephew

Carolina (Brenner) Renner, called 23 year old Gary in 1978 to come talk to her about painting her house.  He had never previously met her and only knew she was one of his great aunts and though the month it took to paint, he learned about his family history and the significance of the archaeology of the site.

Gary had a day job working for his father and could only paint for Carolina evenings and weekends.  He said that every night when she cooked herself dinner that she always seemed to saute onions and he loved that smell and that he could still smell them to this day when he thinks about it.

The three weeks Gary took to paint her house would change his life forever.

Carolina passed away April 6, 1980 and while her heirs decided on her estate, they agreed to allow Gary and his (then) wife, Mary to rent out the home for $50 a month.

The house never air conditioning and the roof leaked.  They moved in with their newborn daughter and lived in the back room with a window unit AC.  When it rained, he said they five, five gallon buckets to catch the leaks.

From 1980 to 1982, they had son, Chris and Gary worked endless hours on the roof and fixing up the house.  We would go out at night and dig where he thought it would do little harm and said Mary often came out at midnight to make him quit.  During this same period, Dr. Walter Burks from Park College had asked the estate if he could conduct summer excavations as a community education program and the estate granted that.  

Gary's dad, David Brenner, was the Riverside mayor and the council had been considering buying the property for a city ball diamond. 

Gary came home from work one day to see an old man looking into his primitive dig to learn it was Shippee. Mett was there where the KC Star was writing and article about the site possibly being threatened. 
KANSAS CITY STAR DEC. 31, 1980
2018
Same house.  Brenner had restored the front porch in the late 80's and added a back covered porch for his ex-wife in the early 2000's. 
Gary and Mett eventually became good friends where Mett took Gary under his wing and invited him to his home on several occasions that summer.  Brenner would later report those weekends were filled with so much input from Mett, that he felt like he got a life's span of archaeology.

When Brenner first showed up at the Shippee house, Mett was painting high on a ladder.    Brenner said he had a box of artifacts he brought and later would comment how embarrassed he was that they were nothing.  But he said Mett devoted time to look over each one as if they were important.  Gary promised Mett that day that he would see that the site got saved.

While working a full time job and re building the Renner house, Gary ran for city council and made no secret it was to save the Renner Site.  During this time, Gary and Mary were able to buy the home and Gary was also teaching community education classes for Maple Woods and was the only non credit program to be offered off site.

Brenner won and waited until the right moment to bring the idea of the City purchasing the remaining part of the site.  Of the original 6 acres reported, Brenner now owned nearly two and the rest would belong to the City.  

Brenner brought up the matter at a late council meeting about 11:56 PM (1984) and knew everyone wanted to go home. It's at the bottom of the official city minutes below. 
BRENNER ON CITY COUNCIL 1982                                          
Shortly before he passed away, Mett came to Gary's Saturday excavations (1984) and by this time was in a wheel chair. Gary excitedly told Mett the council will approve the purchase of the park.     

The council approved purchase of the park on June 18, 1985- again at 11:56 PM. Shippee had passed away only about 90 days earlier on March 26 and Brenner said he went home that night knowing he had lived up to his promise.  [marked below]

Gary made himself in charge of producing a park and he proceeded to that over the next 60 months.

The council gave Brenner the money and the task to have a granite monument built where the Renner estate had required one and had to include the Renner and Brenner names and Mett Shippee.  

Brenner was defeated in 1986 on the same day the monument was erected. The winner was Sheree Shepard who would only serve six months before returning to college. Undaunted, Brenner continued to build on the park and teach archaeology and Mayor Mike Holmes immediately put him on the park board and was again re appointed by Mayor Betty Burch. 

The park was finished in 1990 and Brenner hosted the ceremony. Brenner would continue to teach until the spring of 1993. 

Brenner said he gave over 400 talks and presentations about the site mostly through the 80's. His largest presentation was to 2,000 at the meeting of the American Society of Certified Engineer's at the Hilton in Overland Park.  

 He wrote two published papers through the Kansas City Archaeological Society and appeared on several news stories and in a locally produced movie, "The Lost Footsteps." In 2002, he wrote a screenplay called, "The Last Hopewell" where he let the registration expire after shopping it around. In 2018, Hollywood released a movie called, "ALPHA", which is nearly identical to Gary's screenplay. When asked about it, he said: "They did a better job with the script than I did, but they still stole all my ideas."   

Today he's still active in preserving history and is to for his input on development of signage and the future of the Renner Site.  His most recent work is the population studies at the Renner site which is not published as of 2018. 

Gary still has all the artifacts and notes from his work at Renner and has the intent to donate his work to KU, but his wish would be to keep them closer to home.  
This was one of Brenner's first sketches for what would become the monument.  He had planned on Harlan Shaver to build a rock monument, but Brenner learned that with the addition of the bronze plaque needed that it would be cheaper and better to just do the thing out of granite.  After council approval, the Johnson Monument Company of Independence was hired where Brenner got to hand pick the granite.  The two slabs, the base and top, were cut from the same block.  The granite was from Georgia and was called red granite. 
BRENNER'S DESIGNS FOR THE AMPITHEATER SEATING, SHELTER HOUSE AND CUSTOM LIGHTS. 
PHOTO SHOWING ALL THREE DESIGN CONCEPTS  WERE USED.
IN 2018, ALL THESE ARE NOW GONE OR REPLACED, BUT BRENNER'S DESIGNS SERVED FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. 
BRENNER'S GAZEBO PLAN AND PHOTO OF IT DONE WITH A FEW CHANGES INCLUDING AN ADA RAMP.
GAZEBO WAS REPLACE WITH A SMALLER METAL BUILDING DUE TO CITY INSURANCE REGULATIONS.  
Brenner had pretty much put himself in charge of completing the park in time for the dedication.  Below is one of his daily notes to the public works department (which was three guys).   By this time there was only five weeks to go.  Any work not completed by the public works was completed by Gary and Bill Bright and many other's including Mitch Burch. 
Personal comments from Gary 
My introduction into archaeology came in the late 60's when my dad was developing Plantation Apartments about 1/4 mile north of the Renner site.  He was building an apartment complex on our great grandparents farm began in 1844.  My interest was finding artifacts from that time.  As it turned out, I would find an excellent collection of Nebo Hill artifacts.  My dad would let me ride on the excavator and would stop it if I found something. By the age of 13, I already had an impressive collection and my interest grew.

The rest is history, but there were three other life changing moments regarding archaeology.  The first was meeting Mett Shippee for the first time as he looked into my obvious treasure hunter pit at Renner.  The second was his amazing reaction to invite me into his home where I went for at least three full Saturdays.  I have do doubt that during those visits I got a four year archaeology course from the grandfather of KC archaeology.  Mett gave me my first sifter, probing rod and trowel.  He taught me the way to measure an draw out everything.  Less than 24 months later, I would be teaching a non credit archaeology course for Maple Woods CC and would continue until 1993.   

Mett became ill and could only move around in a wheel chair and Margaret would bring him to our Saturday excavations where he would patiently sit while my students bothered him with artifacts they found.   He never discouraged them and always paid particular concern in each person.  

My second life moment was promising Mett that I would save the site.  After winning my council seat I was able to greet him on his final visit and tell him.  I'm sure how well he could hear me, but he smiled and offered a hug.

My third life changing moment is an ongoing event.  I am now 63.  I started teaching when I was only 27.  I was on the city council when only 28.  I wrote my published materials between the ages of 27 and 35.  I dedicated the park when I was 35.  

In 1993, I inhaled an enzyme from sifting dirt that ended my excavation career.  This was a 2000 year old particle that became active when it hit air and water in my lungs and damn near killed me.  I never got any complete answer of what it was, although it's still in my lungs and now dead.  I do know I'm one of only five people to have gone through this and survived.  Some refer to it as King Tut's Disease based on Howard Carter's troops being affected by a similar episode.

I still have the complete collection.  Al the paperwork, etc.  I have been married three times and have lost three houses.  I've always kept the artifacts with me.  

Sometimes the cost of doing something you truly believe in, is something you and only you know other's may not understand until after you die.  You have to have a commitment that few have or want to have.   I don't know how to describe it other than it becomes you.  In my case, it was literally and figuratively.  

So, for the last 25 years, I've focused on sharing all I can through the internet.  I thank my dad for making me take a year's worth of typing classes in high school!!!!  

At such a young age, my greatest joy was dedicating the park.  Mett was gone, but his name was on the monument and it was simply a dream that I still can't comprehend.

There aren't many who can drive by a property on the National Register of Historic Places that is a park and than can say, "I did that".  
Even today, if I have a bad day and find myself driving around, I can always drive by that park and pass on by with a smile from ear to ear, knowing I actually did accomplish something that will last forever for something I truly do believe in.  I did it for recognition of our history. 
Gary
Renner Site Dedication
June 16, 1990
LEFT TO RIGHT:  JASON GIESEKE, HEATHER BRENNER, ELSIE BRENNER, GAIL BRENNER- GIESEKE, DAVID BRENNER,GARY BRENNER, CHRISTOPHER BRENNER, MARILYN BRENNER, JOAN SHIPPEE-LARSON, MRS. GROH, MAYOR BETTY BURCH, (MAN IN BACKGROUND UNKNOWN) AND MARTHA BRENNER-NOLAND.
Gary in 1987 and 2014
The back of the monument has this inscription:
Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.  Proverbs  22:28
Twenty-seven year age difference really shows!
In 1990, not long after the dedication, Brenner gave this interview to the KC Star:
Brenner Publications
1986     The Kansas City Archaeologist.  Special Bulletin #1.  Recent Excavations at the Renner Site.
1990a   The Kansas City Archaeologist.  Special Bulletin #2.  Renner Site Excavations.   
1990b   The Kansas City Archaeologist.  Special Bulletin #2.  Renner Village Site Monument. 
2012     Population Studies at the Renner Site.  Unplublished. 
Share by: