Kansas, derived from the Siouan word Kansa meaning "People of the south wind," is a Midwestern state in the United States. The U.S. postal abbreviation for the state is KS.

History

Main article: History of Kansas

Kansas, as part of the Louisiana Purchase, was annexed to the United States in 1803 as unorganized territory. Kansas then became part of the Missouri Territory until 1821. The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on May 30, 1854 and established the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Fort Leavenworth was the first community in the area around 1827. To travelers en route to Utah, California, or Oregon, Kansas was a waystop and outfitting place. On March 30, 1855 "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invaded Kansas during the territory's first election and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature.

Kansas entered the Union as a Free State on January 29, 1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. Civil War veterans constructed homesteads in Kansas following the war. On February 19, 1861 it became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raid into Lawrence destroying much of the city and killing hundreds of people. Wild Bill Hickok was a deputy marshal at Fort Riley and a marshal at Hays and Abilene.

Kansas has been home to President Eisenhower, presidential candidates Bob Dole and Alf Landon, Amelia Earhart, and Carrie Nation. Famous athletes from Kansas include Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, Wilt Chamberlain, Jim Ryun, Walter Johnson, Maurice Greene, and Lynette Woodard. Despite its agricultural reputation, Kansas is the home of Walter Chrysler of automotive fame, Clyde Cessna (aviation) and Jack St. Kirby (mircochip inventor) and George Washington Carver (educator/African American pioneer)

Law and government

The state capital is Topeka.

The top executives of the state are Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Lieutenant Governor John E. Moore. Both are elected on the same ticket to a maximum of two consecutive 4-year terms. Their current term will end in January of 2007, and they are able to run for re-election in 2006. The current Attorney General is Phill Kline; his office is also up for re-election in November of 2006.

The state's current delegation to the Congress of the United States includes Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts and Representatives Jerry Moran (District 1), Jim Ryun (District 2), Dennis Moore (District 3), and Todd Tiahrt (District 4). Moore is the only Democrat in the delegation; all others are Republicans.

Kansas had 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 first among the states to ban the concept of separate but equal schools. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 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 infamous 1999 decision to eliminate the theory of evolution from the state teaching standards, a decision that was later reversed. In 2005, voters accepted a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and the Kansas State Board of Education resumed hearings to determine if evolution should once again be removed from state science standards. On November 8, 2005, a 6-4 majority voted in favor of intelligent design. [1]

Kansas has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. 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 were those containing the city of Kansas City and the college town of Lawrence.

See also: List of Governors of Kansas; U.S. Congressional Delegations from Kansas

Geography

Kansas is bordered by Nebraska on the north, Missouri on the east, Oklahoma on the south, and Colorado on the west. It is located equidistant from the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. The geodetic center of North America is located in Osborne County. This spot is used as the central reference point for all maps produced by the government. The geographic center of the 48 contiguous states is located in Smith County near Lebanon, Kansas, and the geographic center of Kansas is located in Barton County.

The state is divided up into 105 counties with 628 cities.

Kansas is one of the six states located on the Frontier Strip.

Topography

The state, lying in the great central plain of the United States, has a generally flat or undulating surface. Its altitude above the sea ranges from 750 feet at the mouth of the Kansas River to 4000 feet on the western border. (Mount Sunflower is the highest point.) The rivers flow through bottomlands, varying from ¼ to 6 miles in width, and bounded by bluffs, rising 50 to 300 feet. The Missouri River forms nearly 75 miles of the state's northeastern boundary. The Kansas River, formed by the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers, joins the Missouri at Kansas City, after a course of 150 miles across the state. The Arkansas River, rising in Colorado, flows with a tortuous course for nearly 500 miles across three-fourths of the state. It forms, with its tributaries, the Little Arkansas, Walnut, Cow Creek, Cimarron, Verdigris (which is the lowest point in Kansas at 680 feet), 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.

Landmarks

• The disputed World's Largest Ball of Twine created August 15, 1953, in Cawker City, Kansas, is still growing.
• Big Brutus, the World's second largest Electric Shovel resides in West Mineral, Kansas. It is 160 feet (49 m) tall and weighs 11 million pounds (5000 t).
• S.P. Dinsmoor created the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas in 1905, and opened it up to tourists in 1908. The garden features sculptures of biblical scenes and political messages. One scene has labor being crucified by a doctor, lawyer, banker, and preacher. Dinsmoor even built his own mausoleum in which you can still see him today in his concrete coffin by paying for the tour. [2]
• Lucas, Kansas is also home to the Grassroots Art Center [3]. The museum features many works of art created by people with no formal training, and it sits only a block or two from the Garden of Eden.
• The John Brown museum is located in Osawatomie, Kansas.
• Monroe Elementary, the school Linda Brown attended when the historic case Brown v. Board of Education was filed, is now a National Historic site in Topeka, Kansas.
• The Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in De Soto, Kansas opened in 1942 to manufacture gunpowder and munitions propellants for World War II. The closed plant sits on over 9000 acres (36 km²) of land which was made up of more than 100 farms.
• The boyhood home of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Eisenhower Library, and his grave are located in Abilene, Kansas. The Greyhound Hall of Fame is located in Abilene. Abilene, Kansas is also the ending point of the Chisholm Trail where the cattle driven from Texas were rail loaded.
• The house of Carrie Nation, now a museum, is located in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
• Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kansas is the location where the Kansas Territorial Government convened and drafted a pro-slavery constitution. (website)
• The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics houses the largest collection of papers for a politician other than a president. The institute is located in Lawrence, Kansas on the campus of the University of Kansas. (website)
• The Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, Kansas features Old West memorabilia and history.
• The Wizard of Oz Museum in Liberal, Kansas features Dorothy's House, a recreation of the farm house featured in the film The Wizard of Oz.
• The National Teachers Hall of Fame is located in Emporia, Kansas.
• The National Agriculture Center and Hall of Fame is located in Bonner Springs, Kansas.
• The Horace Greeley museum is located in Tribune, Kansas.
• The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, located in Hutchinson, Kansas 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 other space artifacts.
• The Boyer Gallery, a collection of animated sculptures made by Paul Boyer is located in Belleville, Kansas.
• The fifth largest collection of civilian and military aircraft in the United States is located at the Mid-America Air Museum.
• The Big Well, the world's largest hand dug well, is in Greensburg, Kansas.
• The Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, features exhibits of several fossils discovered by Charles Hazelius Sternberg as well as various temporary exhibits ([4]).
• Big Basin and Little Basin, two large sinkholes in Clark County.
• Arikaree Breaks, badlands in Cheyenne County.
• The Cimarron National Grassland, Kansas's largest tract of public land in Morton County.
• Monument Rocks (Kansas), a series of chalk arcs and other formations. Kansas also has many other formations of this nature.

Major highways

The state is served by two interstate highways with six spur routes. I-70 is a major east/west route connecting to St. Louis, 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 its 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. I-435 and I-635 serve a dual purpose as connections between the major routes and bypasses around the Kansas City metropolitan area. Other bypasses are I-235 around Wichita and I-470 around Topeka.

In January 2004, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced the new Kansas 511 traveler information service.[5] By calling 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.

See also: KDOT road condition information

Economy

The 2003 total gross state product of Kansas was $93 billion, an increase of 4.3% over the prior year, but trailing the national average increase of 4.8%. Its per-capita income was $29,438. The December 2003 unemployment rate was 4.9%. The agricultural outputs of the state are cattle, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, hogs and corn. The industrial outputs are transportation equipment, commercial and private aircraft, food processing, publishing, chemical products, machinery, apparel, petroleum and mining.

Kansas ranks 8th in oil production, behind only Texas, Alaska, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. 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 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 natural gas production, behind only Texas, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. 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).

The state sales tax rate has increased twice since January 1990—first from 4.25% to 4.9% in June 1992, and most recently to 5.3% in July 2002. 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 the two rate increases have been enacted. Total sales tax collections for 2003 amounted to $1.63 billion, compared to $805.3 million in 1990.

Major employers in Kansas include the Sprint Nextel Corporation (with operational headquarters in Overland Park), Raytheon (mostly in Wichita), Hallmark (Topeka, Lawrence & Kansas City), Goodyear (Topeka), Payless Shoes (National headquarters and major distribution facilities in Topeka), Koch Industries (Wichita), Department of Defense (Ft.Riley/Junction City and Fort Leavenworth) and Boeing.

Demographics

As of 2004, the population of Kansas was 2,735,502. This includes 149,800 foreign-born (5.5% of the state population), and an estimated 47,000 illegal aliens (1.7% of state population).

The increase in population was only 0.4% from the prior year. Only eight states and the District of Columbia have slower growth rates. Between 1990 and 2004, the state grew by 246,000, a 9% increase.

Race and ancestry

The racial makeup of the state and comparison to the prior census:

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%). 'American' includes those reported as Native American or African American.

Americans of British ancestry are common throughout Kansas, as are German-Americans. People of German ancestry are especially strong in the northwest, people of British ancestry and descendents of white Americans from other states are especially strong in the southeast. Mexicans are present in parts of the southwest. Kansas City and Junction City are predominantly black. 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.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Kansas are as follows:

• Christian – 82%
  • Protestant – 60%
    • Methodist – 14%
    • Baptist – 14%
    • Lutheran – 4%
    • Presbyterian – 3%
    • Church of Christ – 3%
    • Mennonite/Pietist – 1%
    • Other Protestant – 21%
  • Roman Catholic – 20%
  • Other Christian – 2%
• Other Religions – 1%
• Non-Religious – 17%

"Rural flight"

Kansas, as well as five other Midwest states (Nebraska, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota and Iowa), is feeling the brunt of falling populations. 89% of the total number of cities in those states have fewer than 3000 people; hundreds have fewer than than 1000. Between 1996 and 2004, almost half a million people, nearly half with college degrees, left the six states. "Rural flight" as it is called has led to offers of free land and tax breaks as enticements to newcomers.

Major cities and towns

See also: List of cities in Kansas

Education