Longtime Emporia State University professor and Kansas historian Jim Hoy will be at Marion Historical Museum at 7 p.m. Oct. 14 to talk about Kansas legends and folktales.

Limited seating will be available, and freewill donations will be accepted.

Many Kansans are familiar with the stories of grasshoppers so big that cowboys could ride them or summers so hot that corn popped in the field.

Kansas is a place of big skies and tall tales, but these exaggerated narratives help residents understand the character of the state and its people.

Hoy’s presentation will explore some of the many legends and folktales from around the state and what they say about the communities that keep these stories alive.

An authority on the folk life of ranching, Hoy is an English professor and former director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at Emporia State. He is the co-author of “Plains Folk,” a syndicated newspaper column.

His presentation is one of several sponsored by Humanities Kansas.

More information about the Oct. 14 meeting is available from museum board president Peggy Blackman at (620) 381-3730.