History of Kansas
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The history of Kansas is rich with the lore of the American West. Located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, the U.S. state of Kansas was the home of nomadic Native American tribes who hunted the vast herds of bison. The region first appears in western history in the 16th century at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, when Spanish conquistadores explored the unknown land now known as Kansas. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. It became part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. In the 19th century, American explorers designated the area as "Great American Desert". Later Kansas was the first battlefield in the conflict in the American Civil War.
Prehistory
The Paleo-Indians and Archaic peoples
According to the best archaeological and geological evidence available, Paleolithic, mammoth-hunting families moved into northwestern North America sometime around the end of the Paleolithic (and, some believe, as late as 10,000 BC) by various means. Around 7000 BC, these Asian immigrants entered into North America reaching Kansas. Once in Kansas, it is believe that these settlers never abandoned Kansas after this initial settlement and these were augmented by other peoples entered Kansas at later times. These bands of newcomers encountered mammoths, camels, ground sloths, and horses. As these species had never faced sophisticated big-game hunters before, the result was the "Pleistocene overkill", the rapid and systematic decimation of nearly all the species of large ice-age mammals in North America by 8000 BC. In a sense, the hunters who pursued the Nero mammoths may have represented the first of north Great plains cycle of boom and bust, relentlessly exploiting the resources until it has been depleted or destroyed.
After the disappearance of big-game hunters, some archaic groups survived by becoming generalists rather than specialists, foraging in seasonal movements across the plains. The groups though did not abandon hunting altogether, but ultilized wild plant foods and small game. Their tools became more varied, with grinding and chopping implements becoming more common, a sign that seeds, fruits and greens constituted a greater proportion of their diet. Also, there occurred the emergence of pottery-making societies.
Introduction of agriculture
For most of the Archaic period, people were not able to transform their natural environment in any fundamental way. The groups outside the region, particularly Mesoamerica, introduced major innovations like agriculture throughout the Americas. Some archaic groups transferred from food gatherers to food producers around 3,000 years ago. They also possessed many of the cultural features that accompany semisedentary agricultural life: storage facilities, more permanent dwellings, larger settlements, and even cemeteries. El Quartelejo was the northern most Indian pueblo. This settlement is the only pueblo in Kansas which archeological evidence has been recovered.
Despite the early advent of farming, late Archaic groups still exercised little control over their natural environment. Furthermore, wild food resources remained important components of their diet even after the invention of pottery and the development of irrigation. The introduction of agriculture never resulted in the complete abandonment of hunting and foraging, even in the largest of Archaic societies.
European visitation and local tribes
In the 16th century, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the Spanish conquistador, visited Kansas. The Kansa (Kanzas Nation), Osage Nation, and Ouasash (or Oauchage) arrived in Kansas around the year 1700. The Kanzas Nation claimed that this region was their occupied territory since 1673. In the 18th century, the Pawnees (sometimes Paneassa) were located in two places - northwest of the Kansa and Osage nations, in the region now known as Kansas and Nebraska. Europeans visited the Northern Pawnees in 1719. The French commander at Fort Orleans, M. de Bourgmont, passed directly around the Kansas River in 1724. The Otoes, tribes of the Sioux, inhabited the area around Kansas and Nebraska.
United States annexation and westward trails
Image:Frank bond 1912 louisiana and the louisiana purchase.jpg Image:Oregontrail 1907.jpg 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. Also in 1821, the Santa Fe Trail came to be the transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico, crossing Kansas in the process. In Kansas, the trail roughly followed the route of U.S. Route 56 to the town of Olathe. This trail section was also used by emigrants on the California Trail and Oregon Trails, which branched off to the northwest west of Olathe.
The westward trails served as vital commercial and military highways until the railroad in 1880 took over this role. To travellers en route to Utah, California, or Oregon, Kansas was an important waystop and outfitting location. Wagon Bed Spring (also Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring) was an important watering spot on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. Other important location were the Point of Rocks and Pawnee Rock.
Fort Leavenworth was the first community in the area around 1827. While serving in the Western frontier, Henry Leavenworth built several military posts. One of which was Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This fort was established May 8, 1827 as Cantonment Leavenworth and is now one of the leading military establishments of the country.
1820s to 1840s and the Indian nations
The region claimed by the Kanzas Nation was ceded to the United States by the treaty of June 1825. The Missouri Shawanoes [or Shawnees] were the first Indians removed to the territory set apart for emigrant tribes by the treaties of June, 1825. The Kanzas and Osages were relocated later. By treaty made at St. Louis, November 7, 1825, the United States agreed to:
- "the Shawanoe tribe of Indians within the State of Missouri, for themselves, and for those of the same nation now residing in Ohio who may hereafter emigrate to the west of the Mississippi, a tract of land equal to fifty miles [80 km] square, situated west of the State of Missouri, and within the purchase lately made from the Osage."
Also in 1825, the Osage Nation was given a reservation in eastern Indian territory in what is now Kansas.
The Delawares came to Kansas by the treaty of September 24, 1829, possessing the lands that were part of the State of Kansas. The treaty described:
- "the country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, extending up the Kansas River to the Kansas (Indian's) line, and up the Missouri River to Camp Leavenworth, and thence by a line drawn westerly, leaving a space ten miles wide, north of the Kanzas boundary line, for an outlet."
The US government moved the Kickapoos to a reservation in Kansas in the late 1830s.
By the August 30, 1831, treaty between the United States and the Ottawa nation (Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf), ceded land (aggregating 49,917 acres (202 km²)) to the United States and moved to the tract of land located adjoining the south or west line of the reservation, equal to fifty miles square, granted to the Shawnees of Missouri and Ohio, on the Kansas River and its branches. The treaty was ratified April 6, 1832. On October 29, 1832, the Piankeshaws and Weas occupied 250 sections of land, bounded on the north by the Shawanoes; east by the western boundary line of Missouri for fifteen miles; and west by the Kaskaskias and Peorias. By a treaty made with the United States on September 21, 1833, the Otoes ceded their country south of the Little Nemaha River. Their land was ceded by treaty of March 15, 1854, and moved to the Big Blue River, finally leaving in 1881.
By June 30, 1834, the Indian country territory was set apart extended as far north as the present northern boundary of Kansas. By treaty of February 11, 1837, the United States agreed to convey to the Pottawatomies area on the Osage River, southwest of the Missouri River, sufficient in extent and adapted to their habits and wants. The tract selected was in the southwest part of what is now Miami County. In the Treaty of New Echota, May 23, 1836, the northern border of the Cherokee land was set as the southern border of the Osage lands. By September 17, 1836 the confederacy of which the Sacs and Foxes, by treaty with the United States moved north of Kickapoos.
In 1842, after a treaty between the United States and the Wyandots, the Wyandots moved to the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers (purchased of the Delaware). The nation, numbered around seven hundred persons. In the summer of 1843, Francis A. Hicks, the Wyandot chief, arrived. This area was situated in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, and extended six miles on each river from their junction. In 1847, the Pottawatomies moved to an area containing 576,000 acres (2,330 km²), being thirty miles square, and being the eastern part of the lands ceded to the United States by the Kansas tribe of Indians, adjoining the Shawnees (south), and the Delawares and Shawnees (east), on both sides of the Kansas. This tract comprised a part of the present counties of Pottawatomie, Wabaunsee, Jackson and Shawnee.
Early 1850s and the territory organization
A large Kickapoo group left Kansas around 1850. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes confederate tribes possessed boundaries fixed by the treaty of September 17, 1851, at Fort Laramie, in Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas. In 1851, at a convention composed of thirteen delegates, elected by the Wyandots, a new Wyandot constitution was formed. On September 2, 1854, a convention was held at Wyandot, at which a provisional government was formed for the Territory. The treaty was ratified February 20, 1855.
The first move for a Territorial government, made within the limits of Kansas, was at the trading post of Uniontown in the spring of 1852 and was the first mass meeting of the American citizens of the Indian Territory. This commenced to lay plans to add to the Union another slave State. In the fall of October 12, 1852, an election was held at Wyandotte for Territorial Delegate to Congress. On July 28, 1853, another convention was held at Wyandotte for a Territorial government organized and nomination for delegate to Congress. The delegate went to Washington, but owning to the delay in passing the Territorial bill, was not received as a delegate.
Petitions were presented at the first session of the Thirty-second Congress for a territorial organization of the region lying west of Missouri and Iowa. No action was at that time taken. During the next session, December 13, 1852, a Representative submitted to the House a bill organizing the Territory of Platte. The bill was referred to the U. S. House Committee on Territories, which reported February 2, 1853, a bill organizing the Territory of Nebraska, which covered the same area of territory as the previous session's bill: all the tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri, and extending west to the Rocky Mountains, generally known as the Platte country.
During the discussion of the bill organizing the Territory, the validity of the Missouri compromise, or the slavery prohibition, thereby established over the Territory, was not once brought in question. It was apparently accepted as a foregone conclusion that, whenever it should be organized into territories or admitted as states, it was to be, under an unalterable law, free territory, and from that belief sprang the Southern opposition. They were not yet ready to open up to settlement more territory, which, it was acknowledged, would eventually increase the number of free States.
Territory ceded
In 1854, the Foxes left Kansas (after slaying a number of Plains Indians in battle while on a buffalo hunt). Nearly all the tribes in the eastern part of the Territory ceded the greater part of their lands prior to the passage of the territorial act. On May 6, 1854, Delawares cede lands, except a reservation defined in the treaty. The Delawares ceded all their lands to the United States except that portion of area sold to the Wyandot tribe of Indians and that parts east and south of land of the Delawares and the Kanzas and forty miles in a direct line west of the boundary line between the Delawares and Wyandots.
Within the three months immediately preceding the passage of the Kansas bill aforesaid, treaties were quietly made at Washington with the Delawares, Otoes, Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Shawnees, Sacs, Foxes and other tribes, whereby the greater part of the soil of Kansas, lying within one or two hundred miles of the Missouri border, was suddenly opened to white appropriation and settlement. On March 15, 1854, Otoe and Missouri Indians cede to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi, except a small strip on the Big Blue River. On May 6, 1854, and May 10, the Shawnees cede 6,100,000 acres (25,000 km2), except 200,000 acres (809 km squared) reserved for homes. May 17, the Iowas cede their lands, except a reservation. On May 18, 1854, the Kickapoos cede their lands, except 150,000 acres (607 km squared) in the western part of the Territory. Lands were also ceded by the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Piankeshaw and Weas on March 30, 1854, and by the Sacs and Foxes May 18.
In 1854, the Chippewas (Swan Creek and Black River bands) inhabited 8,320 acres (34 km²) in Franklin County. In 1859, the tract was transferred to the individual Chippewa families. Around 1857, the Sacs made a treaty accepting their lands in severalty and sell the surplus. In 1860, the Chippewa were joined by a small band of Munsee (or Christian Indian)s. On February 23, 1867, a treaty was concluded between the United States and the Wyandots, making provision for those of the tribe who had not chosen to avail themselves of the provisions of the treaty of 1855, and become citizens, and also for those who, having done, so were unfitted for the responsibility of citizenship, and desired to resume tribal relations.
Kansas Territory
Template:Main The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on May 30, 1854 which established the Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory. The act organizing Nebraska and Kansas contained thirty-seven sections. The original borders of the territory from were the Missouri border to the summit of the Rocky Mountain range; the southern boundary was the 37th parallel, the northern was the 40th parallel.
When Congress set the southern border of the Kansas Territory as the 37th parallel. It was thought at the time that the Osage southern border was also the 37th parallel. The Cherokees immediately complained, saying that it was not the true boundary and that the border of Kansas should be moved north to accommodate the actual border of the Cherokee land. This has become known as the Cherokee Strip controversy.
Within a few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, hundreds of leading Missourians crossed into the adjacent territory, selected each his quarter-section, or larger area of land, put some sort of mark on it, and then united with his fellow-adventurers in a meeting or meetings, intended to establish a sort of Missouri pre-emption upon all this region.
As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourian Emigrates held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post three miles west from Fort Leavenworth, at which a Squatter's Claim Association was organized. They were in favor of making Kansas a "Slave State" if it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there, and even sacrifice their lives in accomplishing so desirable an end.
During the long and existing debate which preceded the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it had become the settled opinion at the North that the only remaining means whereby the territory might yet be rescued from the grasp of the slave power, was in its immediate occupancy and settlement by anti-slavery emigrants from the free states in sufficient numbers to establish free institutions within its borders.
The emigration from the free states flowed into the territory, and settlements were made at various points, too scattered and remote from each other to attract either the attention or the enmity of the pro-slavery partisans, as at Lawrence. There were several free State men in the vicinity of Lawrence, who had come in from Iowa and the northwestern states prior to the arrival of the first party from New England.
Wars, battles, and sieges
Template:Main Kansas experienced a great multitude with the Wakarusa War, the sacking of Lawrence, and the Pottawatomie Murders. There was a War South of the Kaw, a Battle of Franklin, a siege of Fort Titus, a Battle of Osawatomie. This peroid was known as "Bloody Kansas" and/or "the Border Wars". Shortly afterward when the majority of conflicts ended, the America-wide political sectarian war began. Allison Nelson arrived in Kansas during the border disputes, then moved to Meridian, Texas.
Wakarusa War
On December 1, 1855, a small army of Missourians, acting under the command of Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, entered Kansas and laid siege to Lawrence in the opening stages of what would later become known as "The Wakarusa War." Under the influences and appliances of pro-slavery opponents, all Western Missouri was stirred to its very depths, and vomited forth an army for the subjugation of the Abolitionists of Lawrence. A treaty of peace negotiation was announced amid much disorder and cries for the reading of the treaty shortly afterwards. It quelled the disorder and its provisions were generally accepted. 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.
Sacking of Lawrence I
Template:Main On May 21, 1856, pro-slavery forces led by Sheriff Jones gathered closer about the doomed town. A large force was stationed on Mount Oread, and cannon planted so as to cover and command the place. Governor's house was taken as headquarters for the Marshal and the officers of his army. On every road leading to the town and on the opposite side of the river detachments of troops were posted to prevent the escape of fugitives from such justice as the Marshal and Sheriff were now prepared to mete out. The forces mustered under two flags. The blood-red flag, on which was inscribed "Southern rights," floated against the "stars and stripes." Lawerance suffered through the attack.
Pottawatomie Murders
Template:Main Image:John brown abo.jpg The Pottawatomie Massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856, in what appears to be a reaction to the Sacking of Lawrence, John Brown and a band of abolitionists (some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles) killed five men, thought to be pro-slavery, north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. Brown was particularly affected by the Sacking of Lawrence, in which a sheriff-led posse destroyed newspaper offices, a hotel, and killed two men. In the evening of May 24, 1856, Brown, his four sons, a son-in-law, and two other men, killed with broadswords five settlers who were presumed to be proslavery on Pottawatomie Creek. Brown later said that he had not participated in the killings during the Pottawatomie Massacre, but that he did approve of them. He went into hiding after the killings, and two of his sons, John Jr. and Jason, were arrested. During their confinement, they were mistreated, which left John Jr. mentally scarred. On June 2, Brown led a successful attack on a band of Missourians led by Captain Henry Pate. Pate and his men had entered Kansas to capture Brown and others. That autumn, Brown went into hiding and engaged in guerrilla activities.
End of hostilities
Fort Larned was established in 1859 as a base of military operations against hostile Indians of the Central Plains, to protect traffic along the Santa Fe Trail and as an agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861.
With the disbanding of the forces, open war between, the contending factions ceased. Military escorts were granted to travelers and teamsters desiring safe escort to and from the eastern border towns, and, so soon as safety to life and security of property in transit to interior points was established, and goods and supplies became more plentiful, the great incentive to general plunder was gone, midnight raids and robberies became infrequent. The range of lawless depredations became restricted to those who, naturally vicious, live in constant antagonism with all laws.
Constitutions
Four constitutions were framed as the organic law before this state was admitted to the Union.
- Topeka Constitution
- The Topeka Constitution, which was the first in order, was adopted by the Convention which framed it on November 11, 1855, and by the people of the Territory, at an election held December 15, 1855.
- Lecompton Constitution
- The Lecompton Constitution was adopted by the Convention which framed it on November 7, 1857. It was submitted to a vote of the people by the Convention on December 21, 1857, the form of the vote prescribed, being, "For the Constitution with slavery," and "For the constitution without slavery."
- Leavenworth constitution
- The constitutional convention, which framed the Leavenworth Constitution, was provided for by an act of the Territorial Legislature passed in February, 1858, during the pendency of the Lecompton constitution in Congress. The constitution was adopted by the convention at Leavenworth April 3, 1858, and by the people at an election held May 18, 1858.
- Wyandotte Constitution
- The Wyandotte Constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it on July 29, 1859, and was adopted by the people at an election held October 4, 1859. The State was admitted into the Union under this constitution January 29, 1861.
Territorial Election
The adoption of the Wyandotte Constitution was accepted by the people of both sides as a final settlement of the exciting question which had hitherto kept the Territory in turmoil, and henceforth the excitement and frauds at the polls gave way to the quiet and honest contest for party supremacy which prevailed elsewhere in the country. The period of civil strife was at an end.
Statehood
Image:Kansas state seal.png Kansas became the 34th state of the Union on January 29, 1861. Admission of Kansas as a State proved a landmark in the struggle which begun seven years before. The slave powers in the southern United States had now thrown off disguise and challenged the nation to open battle for its life. In the renewal contest, Kansas put on the strength of years and fought with fidelity and bravery to win the Civil War, for all, the battle she had already won for herself. Around three months after admittance, Kansas was called upon to furnish a quota toward suppressing the rebellion. During the years 1859 to 1860, the military organizations had fallen into disuse or been entirely broken up.
1860s
The 1860s saw several important developments in the history of Kansas, including the participating in the Civil War, inauguration of the Great Seal of the State of Kansas, beginning of Prohibition, and the Sand Creek Massacre occurred. James Lane was elected to the Senate from the state of Kansas in 1861, and reelected in 1865. Lane was despised throughout the entire Confederacy.
Seal and motto of Kansas
Template:Main The Seal of Kansas was established by a joint resolution adopted by the Kansas Legislature May 25, 1861. The design for the Great Seal of Kansas was submitted by John J. Ingalls, a state senator from Atchison. Ingalls also proposed the state motto, "Ad astra per aspera."
Civil War
Template:Main At the breaking out of the Civil War, the Kansas government had no well-organized militia, no arms, accoutrements or supplies, nothing with which to meet the demands, except the united will of officials and citizens. The first Kansas regiment was called on June 3, 1861, and the seventeenth, the last raised during the Civil War, July 28, 1864. The entire quota assigned to the Kansas was 16,654, and the number raised was 20,097, leaving a surplus of 3,443 to the credit of Kansas. Statistics indicated that losses of Kansas regiments in killed in battle and from disease are greater per thousand than those of any other State.
The Battle of Baxter Springs, sometimes called the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor battle in the War, fought on October 6, 1863, near the modern-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. The Battle of Mine Creek, also known as the Battle of the Osage was a cavalry battle that occurred in Kansas during the war.
On October 25, 1864, the Battle of Marais des Cygnes occurred in Linn County, Kansas. This Battle of Trading Post was between Major General Sterling Price leading a Missouri expedition against Union forces under Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Price, after going south from Kansas City, was met by Pleasonton at Marais des Cygnes. The Confederates were forced to withdraw after an assault by Union forces.
Prohibition
On February 19, 1881, Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. This was the result of the Temperance movement and eventually resulted in Prohibition. This was lead by the ax-totting Carrie Nation.
Sacking of Lawrence II
Template:Main Image:Battle of Lawrence.png James Lane ordered the imprisonment of women and children in a Missouri jail, tragically the jail's roof collapsed, and killed everyone inside. These deaths enraged all of Missouri. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raid into Lawrence destroying much of the city and killing hundreds of people. The Confederate partisans in Missouri rode to Lawrence (a town long hated by Quantrill and many Southerners) in response to the deaths of women and children. Quantrill also rationalized, an attack on this citadel of abolition would bring revenge for any wrongs, real or imagined that the Southerners had suffered. By the time the raid was over, Quantrill and his men had killed approximately 150-200 men, both young and old.
Troubles in Kansas
The time of the discovery of the precious metals in the mountains of Colorado, and the consequent crowding of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes toward the valleys of the Republican and Smokey Hill, may be considered the commencement of a series of aggressions and counter-aggressions between the native Americans and the miners and military of Colorado, which eventuated in April, 1864, in a war kept up for many months by the Indians upon frontier settlers in Kansas and Nebraska, upon travelers, ranch men end train men, culminating in November of the same year, in a wholesale slaughter of a band of Indians - mostly friendly Indians - who were encamped on Sand Creek near Fort Lyon, on their own reservation, to which they had been ordered as a place of safety.
The Sand Creek Massacre is now commemorated at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. Controversial Indian attacks in the central and western portions of the State of Kansas resulted after pioneering settlers appeared throughout the region. The US government did guarantee safety to Indian tribes, but later initiated attacks against Indian tribes.
Era of Peace
The sweet assuring smile of peace fell on Kansas for the first time in her existence when the war of the rebellions, known as the American Civil War, ended. Twelve years of turmoil and bloody strife - twelve years of constant effort where danger was ever rife, had trained the inhabitants to know now rest save in motion and no safety save in incessant vigilance. Under such discipline the character of the whole people had become as peculiar as the experiences through which they had passed.
A restless energy was the controlling characteristic - to take one's ease had ceased to be a thing to be desired; obstacles to be overcome were the desire objects, and to overcome them the grand aim of a typical Kansan's life. The war being ended, they turned to the most vigorous pursuit of the peaceful arts; they had conquered the right to the free soil they trod; henceforth their energies should be devoted to the development of its highest possibilities through every means which ingenuity could devise, patience endure, or energy execute. During the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War, Nicodemus was established by African Americans.
Kansas Pacific railroad
Template:Main Image:Kansaspacificgrants.jpg
In 1863, the Union Pacific Eastern Division (later renamed the Kansas Pacific in 1869 by an Act of the United States Congress) was authorized by the United States Congress' Pacific Railway Act to create the southerly branch of the transcontinental railroad alongside the Union Pacific. Pacific Railway Act also authorized large land grants to the railroad along its mainline. The company began construction on its main line westward from Kansas City in September 1863.
- Major junctions and dates
- 1864 - Lawrence
- 1866 - Junction City
- 1867 - Salina
Wild wild west
In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in Abilene, Kansas and helped develop the Chisholm Trail, encouraging Texas cattlemen to undertake cattle drives to his stockyards. The stockyards became the largest west of Kansas City, Kansas. The trail ran for 800 miles and was used from 1867 to 1887 to drive cattle northward to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway, where they were shipped eastward.
In 1871, Wild Bill Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas. His encounter there with John Wesley Hardin resulted in the latter fleeing the town after Wild Bill managed to disarm him. Hickok was also a deputy marshal at Fort Riley and a marshal at Hays in the wild west. In Greensburg, Kansas, the Big Well was built to provide water for the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads. It is 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter. This 1880s attraction is the world's largest hand-dug well, being 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter. Coronado, Kansas, was established in 1885. Is was involved in one of the bloodiest county seat fights in the history of the American West. The shoot-out on February 27, 1887, with boosters — some would say hired gunmen — from nearby Leoti left several people dead and wounded.
World War I to World War II
In 1916, Kansas troops served on the U.S.-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution. 80,000 Kansans enlisted in the United States military after April, 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. They were attached mostly to the 35th, the 42nd, the 89th, and the 92nd infantry divisions. Between 1922 and 1927, there were several legal battles Kansas against the KKK, resulting in thier expulsion from the state.Template:Ref
The flag of Kansas was designed in 1925. It was officially adopted by the Kansas State Legislature in 1927 and modified in 1961 (the word "Kansas" was added below the seal in gold block lettering). It was first flown at Fort Riley by Governor Ben S. Paulen in 1927 for the troops at Fort Riley and for the Kansas National Guard.
The Dust Bowl was a series of dust storms caused by a massive drought that began in 1930 and lasted until 1941. The effect of the drought combined with the effects of the Great Depression, forced many farmers off the land throughout the Great Plains. This ecological disaster caused a journey by a large group of residents to escape from the hostile environment of Kansas.
Cold War era
During the Cold War, Kansas participated in the deterrent weapons system that for years defended America from nuclear attack. In the 1950s, Kansas received unusually high doses of radioactive nuclear fallout from 1950s nuclear weapons tests in Nevada.
In May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education unanimously declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and, as such, violate the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all citizens "equal protection of the laws." Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka explicitly outlawed de jure racial segregation of public education facilities (legal establishment of separate government-run schools for blacks and whites). The site consists of the Monroe Elementary School, one of the four segregated elementary schools for African American children in Topeka, Kansas (and the adjacent grounds).
During the 1950s and 1960s, intercontinental ballistic missiles (designed to carry a single nuclear warhead) were station throughout Kansas facilities. They were stored (to be launched from) hardened underground silos. The Kansas facilities were deactivated in the early 1980s. Theories existed at that time that Lawrence, Kansas would be one of the few cities unaffected by a nuclear war (as it is near the exact geographic center of the United States).
On June 8th, 1966, Topeka, Kansas was struck by an F5 rated tornado, according to the Fujita scale. The "Topeka Tornado of 1966" started on the southwest side of town, moving northeast, hitting various landmarks (including Washburn University). Total dollar cost was put at $100 million.
Recent personalities
Kansas was home to President Eisenhower, presidential candidates Bob Dole and Alf Landon, and the aviator Amelia Earhart. Famous sport athletes from Kansas include Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, Wilt Chamberlain, Jim Ryun, Walter Johnson, Maurice Greene, and Lynette Woodard.
Resources and references
- Castel, Albert. A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861-1865 (1958)
- Cutler, William G. History of the State of Kansas, 1883 (source for portions of this article)
- Dick, Everett. Vanguards of the Frontier: A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Earliest White Contacts to the Coming of the Homemaker (1941)
- Goodrich, Thomas. Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre (1991)
- McQuillan, D. Aidan.Prevailing over Time: Ethnic Adjustment on the Kansas Prairies, 1875-1925 (1990)
- Miner, H. Craig. Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State 1854-2000 (2002)
- Reynolds, John D., et al eds. The Archeological Hertiage of Kansas (2004)
- Socolofsky, Homer E. Kansas Governors (1990)
- Socolofsky, Homer E. and Huber Self. Historical Atlas of Kansas (1992)
- Wishart, David J. ed. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (2004)
- Template:Note Charles William Sloan, Jr., ""Kansas Battles the Invisible Empire: The Legal Ouster of the KKK From Kansas, 1922-1927," Kansas Historical Quarterly Fall, 1974 (Vol. 40, No. 3), pp 393-409] (ed. explains in detail how the KKK worked in Kansas.)
Primary sources
- Rich, Everett, ed. The Heritage of Kansas: Selected Commentaries on Past Times (1960)
- Jane Smiley's novel The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (ISBN 0-00225-743-2) is largely set around the settlement and sacking of Lawrence, and is rich in historical detail.
- Dodge City, The Cowboy Capital and the Great Southwest (1913) by Robert M. Wright, Plainsman, Explorer, Scout, Pioneer