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#     Entered Union   Year Settled

34th       Jan. 29, 1861       1727

 

Nickname

Sunflower State

 

Rank      Population

33rd       2,802,134

 

Rank      Square Miles

15th       82,277

 

State Bird

Western Meadowlark

 

State Flower

Sunflower

 

State Tree

Cottonwood

 

State Motto

Ad astra per aspera         To the stars through adversity

Known as the "Sunflower State," Kansas became the 34th state in 1861. The state's name comes from the Kansa or Kaw Indians and is a Sioux Indian term meaning "south wind people." Within Kansas's borders is the magnetic center mark for all of North America. All land surveys in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico use this as a reference point. The geographic center of the 48 contiguous (connected) states is located in a Kansas pasture. The capital is Topeka.

 

There's no place like home! There's no place like home! Dorothy from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is not the only person to express these feelings about Kansas. So would some 2.6 million Kansans living there today and many more throughout the state's history.

 

Sometimes called the "Sunflower State," "Wheat State," "Jayhawker State," and "Midway, USA," Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state, a free state, on January 29, 1861. Why is it "free"?

 

Kansas entered the union as a "free state," because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed the residents to decide themselves if their state would allow slavery. Settlers came from the North and the South with strong opinions about slavery, giving rise to "Bleeding Kansas." Acts of violence erupted due to the conflict before the majority made the territory free from slavery in 1859.

 

The U.S. bought the land that makes up present-day Kansas from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Native American tribes had long called the land home; the state is named after the Indians that the Sioux called the Konza, meaning "people of the south wind." Some Native Americans lived in Kansas against their will in the territory's early days, when tribes were relocated there by the federal government.

 

Those who know Kansas as home are used to its wide plains. As a matter of fact, the whole state is a fairly continuous plain. Laura Ingalls wrote about life there in Little House on the Prairie.

 

Who else has called the plains of Kansas home besides pioneers and cowboys? George Washington Carver, Wilt Chamberlain, Langston Hughes, William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Amelia Earhart, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to name a few. Dorothy has good company in the free state of Kansas!

 

Tornadoes in Kansas

Kansas is known for many things -- wheat, sunflowers ... and tornadoes! What famous story set in Kansas features a tornado?

 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, tells the story of Dorothy, who gets caught in a Kansas tornado and lands in the imaginary land of Oz. This story has been dramatized on stage and film. You might have seen the movie version, which stars Judy Garland as Dorothy.

Tornadoes are storms with rapidly rotating winds that form a funnel cloud. Also known as "twisters," they extend downward from the huge clouds of a severe thunderstorm. The winds that rotate within a tornado usually reach a speed of almost 300 miles per hour!

 

A tornado often sweeps through an area quickly, but it can cause considerable destruction. There have been a number of remarkable reports of tornadoes. In one instance, a schoolhouse was demolished while the 85 students originally inside it were carried more than 400 feet with none killed. There was also a case of five railway coaches, each weighing 70 tons, lifted from their tracks.

 

Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty

 "The government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is here pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace and they now pledge their honor to maintain it."

 

Those words were part of the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty of 1867. That treaty was drawn between the U.S. government and the five tribes of Plains Indians -- the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche in the city of Medicine Lodge in southern Kansas.

 

The Plains Indians had settled in Medicine Lodge, which, for them, was a sacred area. The different tribes of Indians peacefully shared a "lodge" on the banks of the river, which they believed had the power to cure ills. This treaty allowed for white settlements in the area, opened it up to railroads, and fixed the southern boundary of Kansas.

 

Today, the treaty is celebrated every three years with a colorful outdoor pageant re-enacting the events that led to the signing at the place where the Medicine River and Elm Creek meet on the Kansas prairie, now designated Memorial Peace Park. Events also include an Intertribal Powwow featuring Native American dance competitions, crafts, and food booths. The powwow is open to all tribes, with special recognition given to the five Indian tribes that signed the treaty.