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Today’s
cutesy, gingham-pinafore image of KANSAS,
associated with Little House on the
Prairie and The Wizard of Oz, is
a far cry indeed from the troubled history
that made it known as “bleeding Kansas.”
It took three hundred years after Coronado
came in search of gold in 1541 before
pioneers established trails across the
region, and Kansas’s bid for statehood in
1861 is often cited as the catalyst for the
Civil War. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act,
which gave both territories the right to
self-determination over slavery, led to
fierce clashes between Free Staters and
pro-slavery forces. Runaway slaves from the
south were given passage through the area,
aided by abolitionist John Brown, and Kansas
eventually joined the Union as a free state.
After the war, the mighty cattle drives
from Texas made towns like Abilene, Wichita
and Dodge City centers of the “Wild
West.” The debauched, male image of
the West, spawning such “heroes” as
Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok, is,
however, challenged in Kansas, which as well
as being the first state to give women the
vote in municipal elections, boasts the
nation’s first female mayor and senator,
as well as aviator Amelia Earhart and the
battling Prohibitionist Carry Nation.
In 1874, Russian Mennonites brought the
grain that was to transform the state into
the bountiful “bread basket” that now
harvests most of the nation’s wheat.
However, only in the west do miles of golden
corn sway in Kansas’s infamous gusty wind.
The green and hilly northeast, patterned
with woods and lakes, is home to the
unattractive industrial city of Topeka,
liberal college town Lawrence, and
the dull suburbs of Kansas City (though
downtown lies across the state line in
Missouri). The wild and sparse northwest is
pioneer country, while the once-wicked
cowtown Dodge City is in the
southwest. Wichita, the state’s
largest city, lies in the south central
area.
Click here to go to Kansas State
web site. |
