Kansas

Header image from National Park Service.gov, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas

Kansas:Date Admitted: January 29, 1861 as the 34th state.

Bird: Western MeadowlarkThe western meadowlark is a member of the blackbird family. A male usually has two mates at the same time. The females do all the incubation and brooding, and most of the feeding of the young.

Flower: Sunflower – While the vibrant, strong sunflower is a recognized worldwide for its beauty, it is also an important source of food. Sunflower oil is a valued and healthy vegetable oil and sunflower seeds are enjoyed as a healthy, tasty snack and nutritious ingredient to many foods. Sunflowers also produce latex and are the subject of experiments to improve their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic rubber. Sunflowers may also be used to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove uranium, cesium-137, and strontium-90 from soil after the Chernobyl disaster

Tree: Cottonwood A type of poplar, widely used for pulpwood. and for the manufacture of paper.
It is also sold as inexpensive hardwood timber, used for pallets and cheap plywood; more specialised uses include matchboxes and the boxes in which Camembert cheese is sold.
Poplar wood is also widely used in the snowboard industry for the snowboard core, because it has exceptional flexibility, and is sometimes used in the bodies of electric guitars and drums, to produce chopsticks or wooden shoes.

State Quarter
From theus50.com
Kansas’ state quarter features a buffalo and sunflower motif, emblematic of the State s history and natural beauty.

The Kansas commemorative quarter incorporates two of the State s most beloved symbols, the state animal and flower, the buffalo and the sunflower. Each of these two design elements is a visual reminder of our Nation s heartland. They feature prominently in the history of the territory, and both were found in abundance throughout the State in the middle of the 19th century when Kansas gained its statehood.

Capital: Topeka

Nickname: Sunflower State

Motto: To the stars through difficulties

Kansas Facts and Trivia

The state gets its name from a Sioux word. Literally translated it meant, “People of the south wind”.

The first European to arrive in Kansas was Spanish explorer Francisco de Coronado in 1541. Coronado was searching for gold, which he didn’t find.

Many years later, in 1682, Frenchman Robert Cavelier de Las Salle arrived and claimed control of the land for France. Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s only a few Europeans visited the region, mostly to trade for furs with the natives. The land was largely inhabited by the Native American tribes.

In 1803, the United States purchased Kansas from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. American explorers Lewis and Clark traveled through Kansas in 1804 on their way out west. They mapped out parts of the territory and reported back to President Thomas Jefferson on their findings.

In the mid-1800s, hundreds of thousands of settlers traveled through Kansas on their way out west. Two of the most popular trails, the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail, passed through Kansas. In order to help keep the travelers safe, the United States set up forts along the trails. Over time, towns grew up around these forts and many travelers stopped in Kansas, making it their home. There were no Indian attacks reported on the Oregon Trail as the travelers passed through the state.

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to determine whether the states would be admitted to the union as “free” or “slave”, North and South competed to send the most settlers into the region. This quickly led to violence,and the territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

Fort Riley, between Junction City and Manhattan, was the cradle of the United States Cavalry for 83 years, established in order to protect trade along the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. George Custer formed the famed 7th Cavalry there in 1866 . Ten years later, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana, the 7th was virtually wiped out. The only Cavalry survivor was a horse named Comanche.

The years after the Civil War were marked by significant growth in the settlement of Kansas. The flat land was perfect for raising cattle. Cowboys, ranches, and cattle towns sprung up throughout Kansas. It was home to the Wild West. Gunfights became common and famous lawmen such as Wyatt Earp in Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok in Abilene were brought in to keep the peace.

As a freight agent in the 1870s, Fred Harvey spent enough time traveling via train in an era before dining cars to experience first-hand the difficulty of finding good food. Roadhouses set up near the tracks offered limited fare of dubious quality and service ranging from indifferent to surly. Recognizing a business opportunity, Harvey struck a deal with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to operate a system of eateries along its rail lines. His first depot restaurant opened in Topeka, Kansas, in 1876. Within two years, he’d opened his first hotel/restaurant in Florence, Kansas. The foundation for what would grow into a hospitality empire was laid. By 1891, 15 Harvey House restaurants were in operation. Harvey Houses are considered to be the first chain restaurants.

The Arkansas River may be the only river whose pronunciation changes as it crosses state lines. In Kansas, it is called the Arkansas (ahr-KAN-zuhs). On both sides of Kansas (Colorado and Oklahoma), it is called the Arkansaw.

Kansas has the largest population of wild grouse in North America. The grouse is commonly called the prairie chicken.

The Geodetic Center of North America is about 40 miles south of Lebanon at Meade’s Ranch. It is the beginning point of reference for land surveying in North America. When a surveyor checks a property line, he or she is checking the position of property in relation to Meade’s Ranch in northwest Kansas.

Smith County is the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states.

In the landmark Supreme Court Case of 1954, Brown vs the Board of Education, the Board of Education was from Topeka, Kansas. The court ruled that separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional because they were inherently unequal.

The Hugoton Gas Field is the largest natural gas field in the United States. It underlies all or parts of 10 southwestern Kansas counties as well as parts of Oklahoma and Texas. The gas field underlies almost 8,500 square miles, an area nearly 5 times as large as the state of Rhode Island.

A 30 foot tall statue of Johnny Kaw stands in Manhattan. The statue represents the importance of the Kansas wheat farmer.

The graham cracker was named after the Reverend Sylvester Graham (1794-1851). He was a Presbyterian minister who strongly believed in eating whole wheat flour products.

The First United Methodist Church in Hutchinson was built in 1874 during the time of the grasshopper plagues. The grasshoppers came during the construction of the churches foundation but the pastor continued with the work. As a result, thousands of grasshoppers are mixed into the mortar of the original building’s foundation.

Russell Springs located in Logan County is known as the Cow Chip Capital of Kansas.

Sumner County is known as The Wheat Capital of the World.

1900 – Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles that could be seen.

In 1928, a tornado in Kansas was so strong, it plucked feathers off of some chickens.

The term “red light district” came from the Red Light Bordello in Dodge City, Kansas. The front door of the building was made of red glass and produced a red glow when lit at night.

Strange Laws

Riding an animal down any road is against the law
No one may catch fish with his bare hands
If two trains meet on the same track, neither shall proceed until the other has passed
No one may sing the alphabet on the streets at night in Topeka
Rabbits may not be shot from motorboats
Snowball fights are illegal in Topeka
At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
In Kansas, it is illegal to hunt whales, even though it is located in the middle of the country with no coastline in sight.
In Kansas you are prohibited from using of mules to hunt ducks.
In Derby County, Kan., a law is in place that makes it illegal for any person to hit or punch a vending machine when it has stolen a person’s money.

People:

Kansas inventors include Almon Stowger of El Dorado who invented the dial telephone in 1889; William Purvis and Charles Wilson of Goodland who invented the helicopter in 1909; and Omar Knedlik of Coffeyville who invented the first frozen carbonated drink machine in 1961.

Wyatt Earp, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok and William B. “Bat” Masterson were three of the legendary lawmen who kept the peace in rowdy frontier towns like Abilene, Dodge City, Ellsworth, Hays, and Wichita.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, actor
Clarence D. Batchelor, political cartoonist
Gwendolyn Brooks, poet, first African-American to win Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Walter P. Chrysler, auto manufacturer
Clark M. Clifford, secretary of defense for Jimmy Carter
John Steuart Curry, painter
Bob Dole, politician
Amelia Earhart, aviator

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, born in Texas in 1890, moved to Kansas in 1892.
Milton S. Eisenhower, educator, president of three major American universities: Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Johns Hopkins University.
Dennis Hopper, actor
William Inge, playwright
Walter Johnson, baseball pitcher
Buster Keaton, comedian
Emmett Kelly, clown
Stan Kenton, jazz musician
Edgar Lee Masters, poet
Hattie McDaniel, first black woman to win an Academy Award, for her role in “Gone with the Wind.”
William C. Menninger, psychiatrist
Gordon Parks, film director
Zasu Pitts, actress
Charles Buddy Rogers, actor
Damon Runyon, journalist
Barry Sanders, football player
Eugene W. Smith, photojournalist
William E. Stafford, poet
John Cameron Swayze, news commentator
Vivan Vance, actress
William Allen White, journalist
Charles E. Whittaker, jurist