Kansas is a Midwestern state in the Central United States. The state is named after the Kansas River that flows through it, which in turn derived its name from the Siouan word Kansa meaning "People of the south wind."
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Located in the heartland of the country, Kansas is home to the geographical center of the contiguous United States. Historically home to large numbers of Native Americans who hunted buffalo there, the state was first settled by white Americans in the 1850s. Beginning 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. Known as Bleeding Kansas, the state was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. In 1861 Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas exploded as wave after wave of immigrants turned the desolate prairie into productive farmland. Today Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, leading the nation in wheat production.
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.
The state, lying in the great central plain of the United States, has a generally flat or undulating surface, and on a large scale is almost perfectly flat. Its altitude above the sea ranges from 684 feet (208 m) along the Verdigris River at Coffeyville in Montgomery County, to 4,039 feet (1,231 m) at Mount Sunflower, in Wallace County.
The Missouri River forms nearly 75 miles (120 km) of the state's northeastern boundary. The Kansas River, 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 150 miles (240 km) across the northeastern part of the state. The Arkansas River, rising in Colorado, flows with a tortuous course for nearly 500 miles (800 km) across three-fourths of the state. It forms, with its tributaries (the Little Arkansas, 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.
For millenia, the land that is presently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first European to set foot in present-day Kansas, exploring the area in 1541. In 1803, most of 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. 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 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.
Some of the first Americans to settle 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 Quantrill's Raid into Lawrence, destroying much of the city and killing almost two hundred people.
After the Civil War, many veterans constructed homesteads in Kansas. 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 prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
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.
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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.
In January 2004, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced the new Kansas 511 traveler information service. 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.
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* 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 one-third of the state has a semiarid steppe climate. Summers are hot, and often very hot. Winters are cold in the northwest and cool to mild in the southwest. The region is semiarid, receiving on average 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 and short, mild winters and much more precipitation than the rest of the state.
Precipitation ranges from about 46 inches (120 cm) annually in the southeast of the state, to about 16 inches (40 cm) in the southwest. Snowfall ranges from around 5 inches (13 cm) in the fringes of the south, to 35 inches (90 cm) in the far northwest. Frost free days range from more than 200 days in the south, to 130 days in the northwest.
Kansas is the 9th or 10th sunniest state in the country, depending on the source. The only state east of Kansas which is sunnier on average is Florida, coming in Sixth place. Arizona is No. 1, followed by California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Western Kansas is as sunny as parts of California and Texas.
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* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
