The 'State of Kansas' (
IPA: /
/) is a
Midwestern
state[3] in the
central region of the
United States of America, an area often referred to as the
American "
Heartland". It is named after the
Kansas River which flows through it, from the French "Cansez", by explorer
Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, and after the
Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area.
[4] The tribe's name (natively ''kkÄ…:ze'') is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind", although this was probably not the term's original meaning.
[5][6] Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
Historically, the area was home to large numbers of
nomadic Native Americans that hunted
bison. It was first settled by European Americans in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially
opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854,
abolitionists from
New England and pro-
slavery settlers from neighboring
Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a
free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as
Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on
January 29,
1861, Kansas entered the
Union as a
free state. After the
Civil War, the population of Kansas exploded when waves of
immigrants turned the
prairie into productive farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing many crops, and leading the nation in
wheat and
sunflower production.
Geography
Kansas is bordered by
Nebraska on the north;
Missouri on the east;
Oklahoma on the south; and
Colorado on the west. The state is divided up into
105 counties with
628 cities. It is located
equidistant from the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. The
geographic center of the 48 contiguous states is located in
Smith County near
Lebanon. The
geodetic center of North America was located in
Osborne County until 1983. This spot was until then used as the central reference point for all maps of North America produced by the U.S. government. The geographic center of Kansas is located in
Barton County. Kansas is also one of the six states located on the
Frontier Strip and one of several within
Tornado Alley.
Topography
The western two thirds of the state, lying in the
great central plain of the United States, has a generally flat or undulating surface, and on a large scale appears almost perfectly flat.
[7] However, the eastern third is more hilly and forested. The land displays a gradual slope up from east to west; its altitude above the sea ranges from 684
feet (208 m) along the
Verdigris River at
Coffeyville in
Montgomery County, to 4039 feet (1,231 m) at
Mount Sunflower, one half mile from the Colorado border, in
Wallace County.
The
Missouri River forms nearly 75
miles (120 km) of the state's northeastern boundary. The
Kansas River (locally known as the Kaw), formed by the junction of the
Smoky Hill and
Republican rivers at appropriately-named
Junction City, joins the Missouri at
Kansas City, after a course of 170 miles (274 km) across the northeastern part of the state. The
Arkansas River, rising in
Colorado, flows with a bending course for nearly 500 miles (800 km) across the western and southern parts of the state. It forms, with its tributaries (the
Little Arkansas (pronounced Ar-Kansas),
Ninnescah,
Walnut,
Cow Creek,
Cimarron, Verdigris, and the
Neosho), the southern drainage system of the state. Other important rivers are the
Saline and
Solomon, tributaries of the Smoky Hill River; the
Big Blue,
Delaware, and
Wakarusa, which flow into the Kansas River; and the
Marais des Cygnes, a tributary of the Missouri River.
National parks and historic sites
Areas under the protection of the
National Park Service include:
★
Brown v. Board Of Education National Historic Site in Topeka
★
California National Historic Trail
★
Fort Larned National Historic Site in
Larned
★
Fort Scott National Historic Site
★
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
★
Nicodemus National Historic Site at
Nicodemus
★
Oregon National Historic Trail
★
Pony Express National Historic Trail
★
Santa Fe National Historic Trail
★
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near
Strong City
Climate
Storm clouds in northeastern Kansas
Kansas contains three climate types, according to the
Köppen climate classification: humid continental, semiarid steppe, and humid subtropical. The eastern two-thirds of the state has a
humid continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers. Most of the precipitation falls in the summer and spring. The western third of the state has a
semiarid steppe climate. Summers are hot, often very hot. Winters are cold in the northwest and cool to mild in the southwest. Also, the western region is semiarid, receiving an average of only about 16
inches (40 cm) of precipitation per year.
Chinook winds in the winter can warm western Kansas all the way into the 80 degree Fahrenheit (25 °C) range. The far south-central and southeastern reaches of the state have a humid
subtropical climate, with long, hot summers, short, mild winters, and much more precipitation than the rest of the state.
Precipitation ranges from about 46 inches (1200 mm) annually in the southeast of the state, to about 16 inches (400 mm) in the southwest. Snowfall ranges from around 5 inches (130 mm) in the fringes of the south, to 35 inches (900 mm) in the far northwest. Frost-free days range from more than 200 days in the south, to 130 days in the northwest. Thus, Kansas is the 9th or 10th sunniest state in the country, depending on the source. Western Kansas is as sunny as parts of California and Texas.
In spite of the frequent sunshine throughout much of the state, the state is also vulnerable to strong thunderstorms, especially in the spring. Many of these storms become
Supercell thunderstorms. These can spawn
tornadoes, often of
F3 strength or higher. According to statistics from the
National Climatic Data Center , Kansas has reported more tornadoes (for the period 1st January 1950 through to 31st October 2006) than any state except for
Texas - marginally even more than
Oklahoma . It has also - along with
Alabama - reported more
F5 tornadoes than any other state. These are the most powerful of all tornadoes. Kansas averages over 50 tornadoes annually.
[ [1] NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved on October 25, 2006. ]
| Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Kansas Cities |
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concordia | 36/17 | 43/22 | 54/31 | 64/41 | 74/52 | 85/62 | 91/67 | 88/66 | 80/56 | 68/44 | 51/30 | 40/21 |
|---|
| Dodge City | 41/19 | 48/24 | 57/31 | 67/41 | 76/52 | 87/62 | 93/67 | 91/66 | 82/56 | 70/44 | 54/30 | 44/22 |
|---|
| Goodland | 39/16 | 45/20 | 53/26 | 63/35 | 72/46 | 84/56 | 89/61 | 87/60 | 78/50 | 66/38 | 50/25 | 41/18 |
|---|
| Topeka | 37/17 | 44/23 | 56/33 | 66/43 | 75/53 | 84/63 | 89/68 | 88/65 | 80/56 | 69/44 | 53/32 | 41/22 |
|---|
| Wichita | 40/20 | 47/25 | 57/34 | 67/44 | 76/54 | 87/64 | 93/69 | 92/68 | 82/59 | 70/47 | 54/34 | 43/24 |
|---|
| ''[2]'' |
History
For
millennia, the land that is presently Kansas was inhabited by
Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who explored the area in 1541. In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the
Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas until the conclusion of the
Mexican-American War in 1848. From 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the
Missouri Territory. The
Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from
Missouri and
silver and furs from
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today.
In 1827,
Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on
May 30,
1854, establishing the
U.S. territories of
Nebraska and Kansas.
Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day
Denver,
Colorado Springs, and
Pueblo.
Missouri and
Arkansas sent settlers into Southeastern Kansas, namely
Crawford County,
Bourbon County, and
Cherokee County, who attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery. The secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were
abolitionists from
Massachusetts and other
Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring
Missouri. Directly presaging the
American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of
Bleeding Kansas. Kansas was admitted to the United States as a
free state on
January 29,
1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. By that time the violence in Kansas had largely subsided. However, during the Civil War, on
August 21,
1863,
William Quantrill led several hundred men on a raid into
Lawrence, destroying much of the city and killing nearly two hundred people. Until the 1995 bombing of the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Quantrill's raid was the single bloodiest act of
domestic terrorism in America.
After the Civil War, many veterans constructed homesteads in Kansas. Many
African Americans also looked to Kansas as the land of "
John Brown" and led by men like
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton began establishing black colonies in the state. At the same time, the
Chisholm Trail was opened and the
Wild West era commenced in Kansas.
Wild Bill Hickok was a deputy marshal at
Fort Riley and a marshal at
Hays and
Abilene.
Dodge City was another wild cowboy town in the late 19th century. In one year alone, 8 million head of cattle from Texas boarded trains in Dodge City bound for the East, earning Dodge the nickname "Queen of the Cowtowns."
Bat Masterson and
Wyatt Earp were both lawmen in Dodge City. In part as a response to the violence perpetrated by cowboys, on
February 19,
1881, Kansas became the first U.S. state to adopt a Constitutional amendment prohibiting all
alcoholic beverages.
Demographics
As of 2006, Kansas has an estimated population of 2,764,075, which is an increase of 15,903, or 0.6%, from the prior year and an increase of 71,128, or 2.6%, since the year 2000.
[8] This includes a natural increase since the last census of 93,899 people (that is 246,484 births minus 152,585 deaths) and a decrease due to net migration of 20,742 people out of the state.
Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 44,847 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 65,589 people.
[9] The
center of population of Kansas is located in
Chase County, at , approximately three miles north of the community of
Strong City.
[10]
As of 2004, the population included 149,800 foreign-born (5.5% of the state population), and an estimated 47,000 illegal aliens (1.7% of state population). The largest reported ancestries in the state are:
German (25.9%),
Irish (11.5%),
English (10.8%),
American (8.8%),
French (3.1%), and
Swedish (2.4%).
[11] People of
German ancestry are especially strong in the northwest, while those of
British ancestry and descendants of white Americans from other states are especially strong in the southeast.
Mexicans are present in the southwest and make up nearly half the population in certain counties. Many
African Americans in Kansas are descended from the "Exodusters", newly freed blacks who fled the South for land in Kansas following the Civil War.
''See Also
British American and
German-American''
Rural flight
Kansas, as well as five other Midwest states (
Nebraska,
Oklahoma,
North Dakota,
South Dakota and
Iowa), is feeling the brunt of a falling population. Known as a
rural exodus, the last few decades have been marked by a migratory pattern out of the countryside into cities. The trends have people moving from rural areas into urban areas. Beginning in the
Dust Bowl of the 1930s, people moved for a variety of reasons. This problem persists to the present day in the western parts of Great Plains states such as Nebraska and Kansas.
Out of all the cities in these Midwestern states, 89% have fewer than 3000 people, and hundreds of those have fewer than 1000. In Kansas alone, there are more than 6,000
ghost towns, according to Kansas historian Daniel Fitzgerald. And between 1996 and 2004, almost half a million people left the six states surveyed. This ''"Rural flight,"'' as it is called, has led to offers of free land and tax breaks as enticements to newcomers.
[12] Rural flight has contributed to the
urban sprawl of the major cities in Kansas, with people taking up residences in the suburbs at the fringe of urban areas.
Economy
|
| Top 10 Kansas Employers (by number of employees)[13] |
|---|
| Rank | Business | Employees | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Spirit AeroSystems | 21,000 | Wichita | | #2 | Cessna | 13,000 | Wichita | | #3 | Fort Riley | 12,500 | Riley County | | #4 | Raytheon | 9,500 | Wichita | | #5 | Scanlon's LLC | 6,000 | Leavenworth | | #6 | University of Kansas Medical Center | 5,000 | Kansas City | | #7 | Via Christi St. Joseph Hospital | 5,000 | Wichita | | #8 | Olathe Medical Center | 4,000 | Olathe | | #9 | Via Christi St. Francis Hospital | 3,300 | Wichita | | #10 | Kansas State University | 3,030 | Manhattan |
|
The 2003
gross domestic product of Kansas was US$98 billion, an increase of 4.3% over the prior year, but trailing the national average increase of 4.8%. Its per-capita income was US$29,438. The December 2003 unemployment rate was 4.9%. The agricultural outputs of the state are
cattle,
sheep,
wheat,
sorghum,
soybeans,
cotton,
hogs,
corn, and
salt. The industrial outputs are transportation equipment, commercial and private aircraft, food processing, publishing, chemical products, machinery, apparel, petroleum and mining.
Kansas ranks 8th in U.S.
oil production. Production has experienced a steady, natural decline as it becomes increasingly difficult to extract oil over time. Since oil prices bottomed in 1999, oil production in Kansas has remained fairly constant, with an average monthly rate of about 2.8 million barrels in 2004. The
recent higher prices have made
carbon dioxide sequestration and other oil recovery techniques more economical.
Kansas ranks 8th in U.S.
natural gas production. Production has steadily declined since the mid-1990’s with the depletion of the
Hugoton Natural Gas Field—the state's largest field which extends into Oklahoma and Texas. In 2004, slower declines in the Hugoton gas fields and increased
coalbed methane production contributed to a smaller overall decline. Average monthly production was over 32 billion cubic feet (0.9 km³).
Kansas has three income brackets for income tax calculation, ranging from 3.5% to 6.45%. The state sales tax in Kansas is 5.3%. Various cities and counties in Kansas have an additional local sales tax. Except during the 2001
recession (March–November 2001) when monthly sales tax collections were flat, collections have trended higher as the economy has grown and two rate increases have been enacted. Total sales tax collections for 2003 amounted to $1.63 billion, compared to $805.3 million in 1990.
Revenue shortfalls resulting from lower than expected tax collections and slower growth in personal income following a 1998 permanent tax reduction has contributed to the substantial growth in the state's debt level as bonded debt increased from $1.16 billion in 1998 to $3.83 billion in 2006. Some increase in debt was expected as the state continues with its 10-year Comprehensive Transportation Program enacted in 1999. As of June 2004,
Moody's Investors Service ranked the state 14th for net tax-supported debt per capita. As a percentage of personal income, it was at 3.8%—above the median value of 2.5% for all rated states and having risen from a value of less than 1% in 1992. The state has a statutory requirement to maintain cash reserves of at least 7.5% of expenses at the end of each fiscal year.
Major company headquarters in Kansas include the
Sprint Nextel Corporation (with operational headquarters in
Overland Park),
Embarq (with national headquarters in
Overland Park), and
Payless Shoes (National headquarters and major distribution facilities in Topeka). Also,
Pizza Hut was founded in Wichita, KS.
Transportation
Map of the Kansas road system.
Kansas is served by two
Interstate highways with two
spur routes, three
bypasses, and one
beltway over a total of 874 miles. The first section of Interstate in the nation was opened on
I-70 just west of
Topeka on
November 14,
1956. I-70 is a major east/west route connecting to
St. Louis and
Kansas City, Missouri, in the east and
Denver, Colorado, in the west. Cities along this route (from east to west) include
Kansas City,
Lawrence,
Topeka,
Junction City,
Salina,
Hays, and
Colby.
I-35 is a major north/south route connecting to
Des Moines, Iowa, in the north and
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the south. Cities along this route (from north to south) include Kansas City (and suburbs),
Ottawa,
Emporia,
El Dorado, and
Wichita.
Spur routes serve as connections between the two major routes.
I-135, a north/south route, connects I-70 at Salina to I-35 at Wichita.
I-335, a northeast/southwest route, connects I-70 at Topeka to I-35 at Emporia. I-335 and portions of I-35 and I-70 make up the
Kansas Turnpike. Bypasses include
I-470 around Topeka and
I-235 around Wichita.
I-435 is a beltway around the
Kansas City Metropolitan Area while
I-635 bypasses through Kansas City, Kansas.
US Route 69 runs north and south, from
Minnesota to
Texas. The highway passes through the eastern section of Kansas, from the
Kansas City area, through
Fort Scott,
Frontenac,
Pittsburg, and
Baxter Springs before entering
Oklahoma.
In January 2004, the
Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced the new Kansas
511 traveler information service.
[14] By dialing 511, callers will get access to information about road conditions, construction, closures, detours and weather conditions for the state highway system. Weather and road condition information is updated every 15 minutes. The elaborate and efficient transportation system in Kansas has attracted praise from experts nationwide, including the former Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, who frequents Kansas roadways.
The state's only major commercial airport is
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, located along
U.S. 54 on the western edge of the city. Most air travelers in eastern Kansas fly out of
Kansas City International Airport, located in
Platte County, Missouri. For those in the far western part of the state,
Denver International Airport is a popular option. Connecting flights are available from smaller airports in Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, Hays, Salina, and Topeka.
Law and government
State and local politics
The top executives of the state are
Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Lieutenant Governor
Mark Parkinson. Both officials are elected on the same ticket to a maximum of two consecutive 4-year terms. Parkinson replaced
John E. Moore who served as Lt. Governor during Sebelius's first term which ended on
January 8,
2007. Sebelius will not be up for re-election in 2010. The state's Attorney General is Democrat
Paul Morrison, a former Republican who was first elected in 2006.
The
legislative branch of the state government is the
Kansas Legislature. The
bicameral body consists of the
Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 members serving two year terms, and the
Kansas Senate, with 40 members serving four year terms.
Kansas has a reputation as a progressive state with many firsts in legislative initiatives—it was the first state to institute a system of
workers compensation (1910). Kansas was also one of the first states to permit
women's suffrage in 1912. Suffrage in all states would not be guaranteed until ratification of the
19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. The
council-manager government was adopted by many larger Kansas cities in the years following
World War I while many American cities were being run by
political machines or
organized crime. Kansas was also at the center of ''
Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka'', a 1954 Supreme Court decision that banned racially segregated schools throughout the U.S.
Since the 1960s, Kansas has grown more socially conservative. The 1990s brought new restrictions on
abortion, the defeat of prominent Democrats, including
Dan Glickman, and the
Kansas State Board of Education's 1999 decision to eliminate the
theory of evolution from the state teaching standards, a decision that was later reversed.
[15] In 2005, voters accepted a constitutional amendment to ban
same-sex marriage. The next year, the state passed a law setting a minimum age for marriage at 15 years.
[16]
Although Kansas is considered to be one of the most Republican states in the nation, there has been a long-running feud between the socially moderate (or "mainstream") faction and the socially conservative faction of the party. This battle is so heated that it is often said that there are three parties in Kansas--Democrats, moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans. It is possible for a Democrat to win by winning the support of moderate Republicans and a few registered independents. Thus, recently, Kansas has been warming to Democrats, re-electing a Democratic Governor,
Kathleen Sebelius in 2006, with 58% of the vote, as well as Democrat
Paul Morrison (a former Republican) as replacement for incumbent Attorney General
Phill Kline. Democrats also picked up six seats in the
Kansas House of Representatives, and Democrat
Nancy Boyda defeated conservative Republican Congressman
Jim Ryun in the 2nd Congressional District.
Federal politics
The state's current delegation to the
Congress of the United States includes
Republican Senators
Sam Brownback of
Topeka and
Pat Roberts of
Dodge City and Representatives
Jerry Moran of
Hays (
District 1),
Nancy Boyda of
Topeka (
District 2),
Dennis Moore of
Lenexa (
District 3), and
Todd Tiahrt of
Goddard (
District 4). Boyda and Moore are Democrats; Moran and Tiahrt are Republicans. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932, when
Franklin D. Roosevelt won his first term as President in the wake of the
Great Depression. Senator
Sam Brownback carries the distinction of being the most popularly-elected politician in Kansas history and is a current candidate for the Republican party nomination for President in 2008.
Historically, Kansas since the state's inception has strongly supported the Republican party. The people of Kansas supported Republican Presidential candidates every election from 1864 to 1888. Aside from Populist candidates winning Kansas' electoral votes in the 1890s, the only Democrats to win Kansas were Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. In recent history, Kansas has not supported a
Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, when
Lyndon B. Johnson won the state's electoral vote. In 2004,
George W. Bush won the state's 6 electoral votes by an overwhelming margin of 25 percentage points with 62% of the vote. The only two counties to support Democrat
John Kerry in the same election were
Wyandotte, which contains
Kansas City, and
Douglas, home to the University of Kansas, located in
Lawrence.
However, as noted above, the 2006 election saw something of a Democratic Party resurgence in the state, most notably in the form of the election of Congresswoman
Nancy Boyda to the state's 2nd District.
State law
The
legal drinking age in Kansas is 21. In lieu of the state retail sales tax, a 10% Liquor Drink Tax is collected for liquor consumed on the licensed premises and an 8% Liquor Enforcement Tax is collected on retail purchases. Although the sale of
cereal malt beverage (also known as
3.2 beer) was legalized in 1937, the first post-
Prohibition legalization of alcoholic liquor did not occur until the
state's constitution was amended in 1948. The following year the
Legislature enacted the Liquor Control Act which created a system of regulating, licensing, and taxing, and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) was created to enforce the act. The power to regulate cereal malt beverage remains with the cities and counties. Liquor-by-the-drink did not become legal until passage of an amendment to the state's constitution in 1986 and additional legislation the following year. As of November 2004, Kansas still has 32
dry counties and only 15 counties have passed liquor-by-the-drink with no food sales requirement.
[17] Today there are more than 2600 liquor and 4000 cereal malt beverage licensees in the state.
[18]
The state's investigative branch is the
Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
Important cities and towns
Kansas has 627
incorporated cities. By state statute,
cities are divided into three classes as determined by the
population obtained "by any
census of enumeration". A city of the third class has a population of less than 5,000, but cities reaching a population of more than 2,000 may be certified as a city of the second class. The second class is limited to cities with a population of less than 25,000, and upon reaching a population of more than 15,000, they may be certified as a city of the first class. First and second class cities are independent of any
township and not included within the township's territory.
Northeast Kansas
The northeastern portion of the state has a rich history and is home to more than 1.1 million people in the Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, and St. Joseph
metropolitan areas. In the
Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the cities of
Johnson County have some of the fastest growing populations and highest median incomes in the state and the entire country.
Overland Park, a young city incorporated in 1960, has the largest population and the largest land area in the county. It is home to
Johnson County Community College, the state's largest
community college, and the corporate campus of
Sprint Nextel, the largest private employer in the metro area. In 2006 the city was ranked as the 6th best place to live in America; the neighboring city of
Olathe was 13th.
[21] Olathe is the
county seat and home to
Johnson County Executive Airport. The cities of Olathe,
Shawnee, and
Gardner have some of the state's fastest growing populations. The cities of Overland Park,
Lenexa, Olathe, and Gardner are also notable because they lie along the former route of the
Santa Fe Trail. Among cities with at least one thousand residents,
Mission Hills has the highest median income in the state.
Several institutions of higher education are in the area including
MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe,
Ottawa University in Ottawa and Overland Park, Kansas City Kansas Community College and KU Medical Center in Kansas City, and KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park. Less than an hour's drive to the west,
Lawrence is home to the
University of Kansas, the largest public
university in the state, and
Haskell Indian Nations University.
To the north,
Kansas City, Kansas, with the second largest land area in the state, contains a number of diverse ethnic neighborhoods. Its attractions include
Kansas Speedway, the Woodlands, and
Kansas City T-Bones. Further up the
Missouri River, the city of
Lansing is home of the state's first maximum-security prison. Historic
Leavenworth, founded in 1854, was the first incorporated city in Kansas. North of the city,
Fort Leavenworth is the oldest active Army post west of the
Mississippi River. The city of
Atchison was an early commercial center in the state and is well-known as the birthplace of
Amelia Earhart.
To the west, nearly a quarter million people reside in the Topeka metropolitan area.
Topeka is the state
capital and home to
Washburn University. Built at a
Kansas River crossing along the old
Oregon Trail, this historic city has several nationally registered historic places. Further westward along
Interstate 70 and the Kansas River is
Junction City with its historic limestone and brick buildings and nearby
Fort Riley, well-known as the home to the "
Big Red One". A short distance away, the city of
Manhattan is home to
Kansas State University, the second largest public university in the state and the nation's oldest land-grant university, dating back to 1863. South of the campus,
Aggieville dates back to 1889 and is the state's oldest shopping district of its kind.
Wichita
In south-central Kansas, the four-county Wichita metropolitan area is home to nearly 600,000 people.
Wichita is the largest city in the state in terms of both land area and population. 'The Air Capital' is a major manufacturing center for the aircraft industry and the home of
Wichita State University. With a number of nationally registered historic places, museums, and other entertainment destinations, it has a desire to become a cultural mecca in the Midwest. Although Wichita's population growth has been anemic in recent years, surrounding suburbs are among the fastest growing cities in the state. The population of
Goddard has grown by more than 11% per year since 2000.
20 Other fast-growing cities include
Andover,
Park City Augusta,
Derby,
Maize, and
Haysville.
Up river (the
Arkansas River) from Wichita is the city of
Hutchinson. The city was built on one of the world's largest salt deposits, and it has the world's largest and longest wheat elevator. It is also the home of
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Prairie Dunes Country Club and the Kansas State Fair. North of Wichita along
Interstate 135 is the city of
Newton, the former western terminal of the
Santa Fe Railroad and trailhead for the famed
Chisholm Trail. To the southeast of Wichita are the cities of
Winfield and
Arkansas City with historic architecture and the
Cherokee Strip Museum (in Ark City). The city of
Udall was the site of the deadliest
tornado in Kansas on
May 25,
1955; it killed 80 people in and near the city.
[22] To the southwest of the largest city in the state is
Freeport, the state's smallest incorporated city (population 8).
Around the state
Kansas Population Density Map
Located midway between Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita in the heart of the Bluestem Region of the
Flint Hills, the city of
Emporia has several nationally registered historic places and is the home of
Emporia State University, well-known for its Teachers College. It was also the home of newspaper man
William Allen White.
'Southeast Kansas'
Southeast Kansas has a unique history with a number of nationally registered historic places in this coal-mining region. Located in
Crawford County (dubbed the Fried Chicken Capital of Kansas),
Pittsburg is the largest city in the region and the home of
Pittsburg State University. The neighboring city of
Frontenac in 1888 was the site of the worst mine disaster in the state in which an underground explosion killed 47 miners. "
Big Brutus" is located a mile and a half outside the city of
West Mineral. Along with the restored fort, historic
Fort Scott has a national cemetery designated by President Lincoln in 1862.
'Central and North-Central Kansas'
Salina is the largest city in central and north-central Kansas. South of Salina is the small city of
Lindsborg with its numerous
Dala horses. Much of the architecture and decor of this town has a distinctly Swedish style. To the east along
Interstate 70, the historic city of
Abilene was formerly a trailhead for the
Chisholm Trail and was the boyhood home of
President Eisenhower. To the west is
Lucas, the Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas.
'Northwest Kansas'
Westward along the Interstate, the city of
Russell, traditionally the beginning of sparsely-populated
northwest Kansas, is the home of former U.S. Senator
Bob Dole and the boyhood home of U.S. Senator
Arlen Specter. The city of
Hays is home to
Fort Hays State University and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, and is the largest city in the northwest with a population of around 20,000. Two other landmarks are located in smaller towns in
Ellis County: the "Cathedral of the Plains" is located 10 miles east of Hays in
Victoria, and the boyhood home of
Walter Chrysler is 15 miles west of Hays in
Ellis. West of Hays, population drops dramatically, even in areas along I-70, and only two towns containing populations of more than 3,000:
Colby and
Goodland, which are located 35 milies apart along I-70.
'Southwest Kansas'
Southwest Kansas, and
Dodge City in particular, is famously known for the cattle drive days of the late 19th century. The city of Dodge was built along the old
Santa Fe Trail route. The city of
Liberal is located along the southern Santa Fe Trail route. The first wind farm in the state was built east of
Montezuma.
Garden City has the Lee Richardson Zoo.
Education
Main articles: Education in Kansas
Education in Kansas is governed primarily by the
Kansas State Board of Education (
web). On
August 9,
2005, the Board approved a draft of science curriculum standards that mandated equal time for the theories of "
evolution" and "
intelligent design" This echoes a previous decision in Kansas. In 1999, the Board ruled that instruction about evolution, the
age of the earth, and the
origin of the universe was permitted, but not mandatory, and that those topics would not appear on state standardized tests. However, the Board reversed this decision
February 14,
2001, ruling that instruction of all those topics was mandatory and that they would appear on standardized tests.
Professional sports teams
Although there are no
major professional sports league teams within Kansas, many Kansans support the sports teams of
Kansas City, Missouri, including the
Kansas City Royals (
MLB), the
Kansas City Chiefs (
NFL), the
Kansas City Wizards (
MLS) and the
Kansas City Brigade (
AFL). All three teams except the Brigade, play at the
Truman Sports Complex, located about 10 miles from the Kansas-Missouri state line. However, the Wizards are considering relocating to a new stadium or complex in Johnson County. The
Kansas City Brigade played at the
Kemper Arena and will move to the new
Sprint Center in 2008.
Persons in western Kansas may sometimes support the major league teams in
Denver, and those areas close to the Colorado state line have large pockets of fans of the
NFL's
Denver Broncos. Many people who live close to the Oklahoma state line support the
Dallas Cowboys. All Chiefs games are televised throughout Kansas by television stations in Topeka and Wichita, and any Broncos and Cowboys games which do not conflict with Chiefs telecasts are also broadcast across the state.
Two major
auto racing facilities are located in Kansas. The
Kansas Speedway located in Kansas City hosts races of the
NASCAR,
IRL, and
ARCA circuits. Also, the
National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) holds
drag racing events at
Heartland Park Topeka.
Miscellaneous topics
Notable residents
Amelia Earhart (aviation pioneer),
Carrie Nation (temperance activist),
former President Eisenhower, former Vice President
Charles Curtis, and former presidential candidates
Bob Dole and
Alf Landon called Kansas their home.
NASA astronauts
Ronald Evans,
Joe Engle, and
Steve Hawley also lived in Kansas.
Despite its strong agricultural reputation, Kansas was home to industrial and intellectual pioneers
Walter Chrysler of automotive fame,
Clyde Cessna and
Lloyd Stearman (aviation pioneers),
Jack Kilby (microchip inventor, The Nobel Prize Winner in Physics 2000),
George Washington Carver (educator and scientist),
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. (The Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine 1971), and
Vernon L. Smith (The Nobel Prize Winner in Economics 2002). Also from Kansas are General
Richard Myers (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2001-05) and
Robert Gates (United States Secretary of Defense December 2006 - Present).
Kansas was also home to
Danny Carey(musician),
Vivian Vance (actress),
Samuel Ramey (Opera Singer),
Joyce Castle (Opera Singer),
Deborah Lee Green (Opera Singer),
Louise Brooks (actress),
Annette Benning (actress),
Steve Balderson (film director),
John Brown (abolitionist),
Langston Hughes (poet),
Gordon Parks (photographer, movie director, musician, author),
Fatty Arbuckle (actor),
William Inge (writer),
Dennis Hopper (actor),
Buster Keaton (actor),
Coleman Hawkins (Jazz musician),
Martina McBride (Country Singer),
Melissa Etheridge (musician),
Kirstie Alley (actress),
Paul Rudd (actor),
Charlie Parker (Jazz musician),
Jeff Probst (Survivor host), '' winner
Danni Boatwright,
Phil Stacey (
American Idol Finalist) and
William Allen White (editor).
Famous athletes from Kansas include
George Brett,
Wilt Chamberlain,
Barry Sanders,
Gale Sayers,
John H. Outland,
Billy Mills,
Jim Ryun,
Walter Johnson,
Jackie Stiles,
Caroline Bruce,
John Riggins,
Maurice Greene, and
Lynette Woodard. Kansas was also home to coaches
James Naismith,
Phog Allen,
Dean Smith,
Adolph Rupp,
Lon Kruger,
Tex Winter,
Mark Turgeon, and
Eddie Sutton.
No discussion of notable Kansas residents would be complete without mentioning the more famous
fictional residents:
Marshal Matt Dillon from the TV Show
Gunsmoke,
Mary Ann Summers of
Gilligan's Island,
Dennis Mitchell (Dennis the Menace),
Dean and
Sam Winchester from the TV Show
Supernatural,
Clark Kent/
Superman,
Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell of
Stargate SG-1, Walter and India Bridge from
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge Jonas Nightengale from
Leap of Faith (film) and of course Kansas's most famous fictional daughter,
Dorothy Gale from
The Wizard of Oz.
Landmarks
:''
Main articles: List of Kansas landmarks''
:''
★ The
John Brown museum is located in
Osawatomie.
★ The boyhood home of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Eisenhower Library, and his grave are located in
Abilene.
★ Abilene is the ending point of the
Chisholm Trail where the cattle driven from Texas were loaded onto rail cars.
★ The house of
Carrie Nation, now a museum, is located in
Medicine Lodge.
★ Constitution Hall in
Lecompton is the location where the Kansas Territorial Government convened and drafted a pro-slavery constitution.
[23]
★ The Wizard of Oz Museum in
Wamego features Dorothy's House, a recreation of the farm house featured in the film ''
The Wizard of Oz''.
★ The
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, located in Hutchinson, is affiliated with the
Smithsonian Institute. The museum features the largest collection of artifacts from the Russian Space Program outside of Moscow. It is also home to
Apollo 13, an
SR-71 Blackbird, and many space artifacts.
★ The award-winning
Kansas Museum of History [24] is the state museum, and is located in the capital city of Topeka.
★ The
world's largest ball of twine (disputed), created
August 15,
1953, in
Cawker City.
★ The
Big Well, billed as the Worlds Largest Hand Dug Well is located in
Greensburg, Kansas.
See also
★
List of Kansas-related topics
★
Kansas census statistical areas
★
Kansas Highway Patrol
★
List of people from Kansas
★
Lists of places in Kansas
★
Scouting in Kansas
References
1. House Bill No. 2140 was signed into law on May 11, the law begins July 1.
2. U.S. ENGLISH,Inc
3. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf
4. John Koontz, p.c.
5. Rankin, Robert. 2005. "Quapaw". In ''Native Languages of the Southeastern United States'', eds. Heather K. Hardy and Janine Scancarelli. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pg. 492
6. Connelley, William E. 1918. ''Indians''. A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, ch. 10, vol. 1
7. http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i3/kansas.html
8. State Population Estimates. Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, and States and for Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 (NST-EST2006-01). U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. Released 2006-12-22. Six year change is from 2000-07-01 to 2006-07-01.
9. State Population Estimates. Cumulative Estimates of the Components of Population Change for the United States, Regions and States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 (NST-EST2006-04). U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. Released 2006-12-22.
10. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cenpop/statecenters.txt
11. Kansas - Race and Hispanic Origin: 1860 to 1990
12. http://www.kansasfreeland.com
13. http://www.acinet.org/acinet/oview6.asp?soccode=&stfips=20&from=State&id=11&nodeid=12
14.
15. Los Angeles Times. Vote by Kansas School Board Favors Evolution's Doubters
16. http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0505MarriageAge05-ON.html
17.
18.
19. Revision to 2005 Census Data
20. Annual estimates of the population through 2005-07-01. Released 2006-06-21.
21.
22.
23. Historic Lecompton - Constitution Hall State Historic Site. Retrieved on 13 April 2007.
24. http://www.kshs.org/
External links
'Official sites'
★
State of Kansas
★
Kansas Travel and Tourism Division
★
Kansas State Historical Society
★
''KANSAS!'', a quarterly magazine published by the Kansas Dept. of Commerce
'Additional information'
★
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Kansas
★
LASR: Kansas Attractions, Events and Recreation
★
Kansas on the Net (county and city info)
★
Kansas History Online
★
Cutler's History of Kansas
★
Kansas Maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library map collection at the University of Texas
★
Kansas Department of Transportation maps
★
Kansas State Constitution
★
Kansas weather
★
Kansas webcam directory
★
Map of average annual precipitation at Oregon State University
★
Contemporary and historic Kansas articles and ghost towns
★
Kansas Heritage the first Kansas history on the web
★
Kansas Travel, Attractions and Restaurants
★
Kansas State Facts
★
Kansas Archaeology
★ An in-depth description of the history and current regulations in Kansas.
★
Kansas Board of Regents. .
★
U.S. Census Bureau.
★
★
Kansas QuickFacts. Geographic and demographic information.
العربية
ä¸å›½
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिनà¥à¤¦à¥€
Italiano
日本語
Português
РуÑÑкий
Español
