THE STATE OF KANSAS, U.S.A

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WORLD TRAVEL NEWS ARTICLE

THE STATE OF KANSAS, U.S.A

Dead centre of the USA, Kansas is one of the Great Plains States with 81,782 square miles of mainly prairie land. Nebraska is to the north, Oklahoma to the south and Colorado lies to the west, Montana to the east. The country’s chief wheat producing state, Kansas also has its own gas and oil and a sizeable industrial output.

Copy of the original poster

Early settlers arrived via the Santa Fe Trail but the Dust Bowl drought disaster of the 1930s saw many of them depart from the State for pastures new and less risky. Far from being a gentle region of permanently golden corn and sunflowers, as typified in the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, Kansas has the complete extremes of hot dry summers and exceedingly cold winters. In late spring tornados occur in eastern Kansas.

State Capitol

Topeka is the capital of the State, a quiet city in the north east corner which was founded in 1824. Apart from housing all the Government buildings, Topeka is the headquarters for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the base for the Menninger Foundation’s Hospital and Research Centre. The Kansas History Centre relates the long and arduous route from the days of the early settlers to the sophistication of Kansas today.

The University of Kansas is situated in the Flint Hills to the west of Topeka, at Manhattan, although the Natural History and Art Museums of the University are to be found in the University Campus at Lawrence to the east.

The University of Kansas Medical Centre is in Kansas City Kansas, 55 miles east of Topeka. Confusingly there is also a Kansas City Missouri over the border. Kansas City Kansas has a greater population than has the capital Topeka, and it is a very diverse population too that reflects the early migration to the Prairies, and today it is a busy industrial city on the Kansas River.

Kansas City, Kansas

Exodusters was the name adopted by the 1879 black settlers who had fled the ill treatment meted out to them in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to come and farm the plains. They coined the name by comparing the trek they had just made to the biblical story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. John Brown, an earlier passionate anti slavery activist, had paved the way for a less prejudiced attitude to exist in Kansas towards these emancipated slaves.

Wind, winter storms, blistering heat and drought of summer, fierce rain that crushed the crops, grasshoppers that ate everything from crops, clothing and mosquito nets to even the handles of the ploughs – “everything but the mortgage” they quipped – were natural hardships to endure. Few neighbours in the endless plains meant comparative loneliness, few trees with which to build homes meant that they had to build poor adobe houses instead of something more substantial, and they lived a drab and difficult existence. The lack of trees meant that they were unable to make fences with which to surround their land. Out of this lack however, stemmed the invention of barbed wire by a farmer from Illinois.

John Brown’s 1850s confrontations with those in favour of slavery are vividly depicted in a mural by John Steuart Curry entitled The Settlement of Kansas which is a feature in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka.

The largest city in Kansas is Wichita, on the Arkansas River. Founded in 1863 the city began as a trading post and sequently became a key destination for cattle drives traveling north from Texas to access the rail tracks. This earned it the nickname "Cowtown".

In the 1920s and 1930s, businessmen and aeronautical engineers established a number of successful aircraft manufacturing companies in Wichita including, among others, Beechcraft, Cessna, and Stearman Aircraft. The city transformed into a hub of U.S. aircraft production and became known as "The Air Capital of the World". Beechcraft, Cessna, and other firms including Boeing, Learjet, and Spirit AeroSystems continue to operate factories in Wichita today, and the city remains a major center of the U.S. aircraft industry.

Wichita was also a significant entrepreneurial business center during the pre and post-war period, with, amongst others, Pizza Hut, being founded in Wichita.

The First Pizza Hut

Wyatt Earp country exists around Dodge City in the south west corner, with memorabilia of the Bad Old Days throughout the town. At Wichita in the central south, visitors go to see the Old Cowtown Museum in the old original jail and where houses of the era have been preserved.

Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson - 1876

Some conservation has sadly not been possible. When the railroads were built they used the trails that the migrating bison herds had marked out, and the unforeseen consequence of this was a reduction from the previous millions of beasts to close on extinction of this magnificent animal.

The original tallgrass has been preserved in two places, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills and the Konza Prairie. You can take a very scenic drive through this lovely area which allows you to explore both of these Preserves. Each prairie reserve offers hiking tracks and trails to visitors.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

GETTING THERE

Kansas City International Airport is 17 miles (27 kilometres) from Kansas City, Kansas and 19 miles (30 kilometres) northwest of downtown Kansas City, Missouri.