Burdett and Dr. Clyde Tombaugh


Burdett is a small farming community located in central Kansas, 50 miles west of Great Bend. It is home to the grade school and junior high buildings of Pawnee Heights, USD 496.

On July 15, 1982, a large cast metal historical marker, sponsored by the Lions Club of Burdett, was erected at a new roadside historical park beneath the Burdett watertower along K-156. Dr. Tombaugh was present at the ceremonies and afterwards signed autographs for purchasers of his book Out of the Darkness: The Planet Pluto.


The historical marker reads:

           DISCOVER OF PLUTO

  Burdett is the boyhood home of Dr. Clyde
Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto. Born
in Illinois in 1906, he grew up on a farm
northwest of here and was graduated from
Burdett High School in 1925.
  During his youth, Tombaugh explored the
heavens with homemade telescopes. Later he
was hired by Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff,
Arizona, and discovered Pluto, the outermost
planet in our solar system, in 1930.
  During his planet search, Tombaugh photo-
graphed 65 percent of the sky and spent
7,000 hours examining about 90 million star
images. Besides Pluto, his discoveries included
six star clusters, one cloud of galaxies, one
comet and about 775 asteroids. Few astronomers
have seen so much of the universe in such
minute detail.
  Dr. Tombaugh earned degrees from the Univer-
sity of Kansas and Northern Arizona University.
He concluded his career as an astronomy 
professor at New Mexico State University.

 Tombaugh Marker
Photo taken July 15, 1982

Resource links

The following articles have been reproduced with the permission of the Larned Tiller and Toiler and of Karl Hill, New Mexico State University. The first article appeared in the Larned Tiller and Toiler on Friday, July 16, 1982, detailing the dedication of the historical marker. I've deleted parts of it for briefness. The second article appeared in the Larned Tiller and Toiler on July 14, 1982. It is a reprint of an article that appeared in the Larned Tiller and Toiler on March 20, 1930, relating the discovery of Pluto by Dr. Clyde Tombaugh. I have included the text of the official announcement of Dr. Tombaugh's death by New Mexico State University. The fourth article is not related to Pluto or Dr. Tombaugh. It is paper I wrote about x-raying a Cretaceous shark for a friend. Below these articles are webpages of interest, mainly about Pluto.


"Hometown Folks Make 'Star' of Pluto Finder" ,Larned Tiller and Toiler, Friday, July 16, 1982
"Pawnee Co. Boy Wins Fame" ,Larned Tiller and Toiler, Friday, July 14, 1982, reprint from March 20, 1930
"Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, dies" ,Karl Hill, New Mexico State University, Jan 18, 1997
"Imaging of the Cretaceous Shark" ,Rob Graham, 1993
New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission homepage
Good News for Pluto: KBOs May Be Smaller Than Thought, Lori Stiles,University of Arizona, November 10, 2004

or visit our online Rubber Stamp catalog.