The 80 Most Fun and Interesting Kansas Facts You Didn’t Know

Folks who don’t know Kansas well may just think of the state as a cereal grain producer. But some fascinating Kansas facts might enliven your perspective of the Wheat State. From famous films featured in Kansas to some of the most notorious gunslingers, the state is filled with some amazing and fun firsts, worsts, and “biggests.”

Let’s find out more.

Basic Kansas Facts

• The capital of Kansas is Topeka.
• The official reptile of Kansas is the ornate box turtle.
• 3 million people call Kansas home.
• “Home on the Range” smacks of buffalos and farmland, which is probably why Kansas chose the song as their official state song.
• Kansas bears two nicknames: the Wheat State and the Sunflower State.
• “To the stars through difficulties” has become the state motto.
• Kansas contains 82,278 square miles.

Kansas Facts: History

• Researchers and historians have found evidence that Native Americans lived in Kansas as far back 12,000 B.C.E.
• The name “Kansas” comes a Sioux word “Kansa” the name of a Sioux tribe. The word means “people of the Southwind.”
• You might think of the Wild West as further west in the United States, but Kansas was home to some of the most infamous gunslingers, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Wild West. Some names that might ring a bell include Sam Bass, Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson, and George Newcomb.
• The first Europeans to explore Kansas were the Spanish in 1541.
• The Kansas Territory came out of the Nebraska-Kansas Act, created by Illinois senator in the Nebraska Bill.
• Kansas became a state officially in 1861, becoming the 34th of the Union.
• Between 1854 and 1859, “Bleeding Kansas” took place between pro and anti-slavery residents of the state. The fight was for who would control the state’s governing ideals.
• In 1909, Charles Wilson and William Purvis of Goodland, Kansas, invented the helicopter.
• It’s a bit awkward, but the first red light district to go by the name started in Dodge City, Kansas. The Red Light Bordello there had a red glass door producing the red glow at night later used by others to identify the trade.
• About 90-percent of rural Kansas towns have less than 3,000 residents.
• You’ll find a heap of Kansas ghost towns out there, including Diamond Springs, Black Jack, and Elmdale.
• Susan Madora Salter was the first woman mayor in the United States. She was elected to office in Argonia, Kansas, in 1887.
• Early Kansans were some of the first to become actively concerned and willing to do something about equality for women. Women had voting rights as early as 1861.

Food Facts About Kansas

• Named for Reverend Sylvester Graham, a minister soundly sold on eating whole-wheat flour, the graham cracker was born in Kansas.

• Kansas City-style barbecue is huge here! The slow-smoked meat over wood gets topped with a thick molasses-tomato-based sauce known as Kansas City Style.
• The first Icee drink was born in Kansas in the 1960s, when the Coffeyville Dairy Queen owner, Omar Knedik, decided to give it a try.

Important Kansans

• The first woman ever granted a pilot’s license by the National Aeronautics Association and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean was from Atchison, Kansas. Her name was Amelia Earhart.
• Late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was born in Abilene, Kansas.
• Famous singers Martina McBride and Melissa Etheridge come from Kansas.
• Actress Kirstie Alley and Jeff Probst the television host and producer came from Kansas.
• Langston Hughes, poet, was born in Kansas.
• An abolitionist named John Brown lived in Kansas. He helped free enslaved people and helped them escape slave hunters.

Kansas Industry and Agriculture Facts

• The birthplace of Payless Shoe Store was in Topeka, Kansas. The store opened its original doors in 1956.
• Since opening in 1857, the Hays House in Council Grove, Kansas, is the longest continually operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River.
• In 1958, the world’s first Pizza Hut opened in Wichita, Kansas.
• In Wichita, the first airplane factory of the state opened in 1919.
• In 1921, the first national hamburger chain opened in Wichita: White Castle.
• Every year, the wheat grown in Kansas could fill a train stretching from western Kansas all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
• Some 33 billion loaves of bread were made from the wheat produced in Kansas in 1990 alone.
• Kansas happens to be one of the most agriculturally productive states in America, thanks to the massive yields of wheat, soybeans, corn, and sorghum grown there each year.

Kansas Facts: Animals and Plants

• Waterbeds help the horses sleep during surgery when they stay at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
• The most prairie chickens in all of America reside in Kansas. Two specific species call the place home among the grasslands, known as the greater and the lesser prairie chickens.
• American buffalo, or Bison, still roam the plains of Kansas.
• Flint Hills is home to the most tallgrass prairieland in the world. Only 4-percent of the original 170 million acres exist in the country, and most of it is located within Flint Hills, Kansas.

Kansas Facts: Geography

• In White Cloud, Kansas, you’ll find a panoramic view over the Missouri River Valley that offers a lookout over Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas, all from one spot.
• Kansas has often been described as “flatter than a pancake.” In fact, in 2003, geographers tested the theory and determined the state is, indeed flatter than the average pancake.
• Smith County, Kansas is the geographical center of the lower 48 states.
• Farmland covers approximately 88 percent of the total land of Kansas.
• 27 different Walnut Creeks exist in Kansas, including the one Laura Ingalls’ childhood town was probably named for.
• Nicknamed the Salt City, Hutchinson, Kansas was built on some of the richest salt deposits in the world.
• The Arkansas River is the only river known to change pronunciations as it crosses state lines. In Kansas, the river is pronounced like it’s spelled. In Colorado and Oklahoma, it’s pronounced “Arkansaw.”
• Over 800 known caves exist in Kansas.
• Mount Sunflower in Kansas is the state’s highest point.

Kansas Facts: Landmarks

• Apparently, the Gates of Hell are rumored to rest beneath the Stull United Methodist Church.
• The Rock Island Railroad bridge was built in 1939, north of Arkalon, Kansas. The bridge earned the nickname of the “Sampson of the Cimarron” for its’ massive 114 feet towering over the river. It’s also the longest railroad bridge of its kind, measuring 1,200 feet long.
• A series of huge chalk formations known as the Monument Rocks are rich in fossils in Gove County. The site is so incredible it’s been deemed a National Natural Landmark.
• A half-mile long grain elevator that holds 46 million bushels of grain resides in Hutchinson, Kansas.
• You’ll find the Garden of Eden in Kansas! Tucked into Lucas, Kansas, the 100-ton concrete statue by S.O. Dinsmoor, a Civil War veteran, came into existence between the 1900s and the 1930s. The statue includes concrete trees, too, some of which reach up to 40 feet in height.
• The Big Well rests in Greensburg, the largest hand-dug well in the world. The 1987 hand-tooled dug well is 32-feet in diameter and 109 feet deep.
• Goodland, Kansas holds the largest easel in the world. The giant piece stands ay 80 feet, weighs 40,000 pounds, and holds a giant replica of Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflower.”
• The world’s tallest waterslide also exists in Kansas. The Schlitterbahn Waterpark lies in Kansas City, with the waterslide taller than Niagara Falls.
• You’ll also find the largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas, measuring over 38 feet in circumference and weighing 16,750 pounds.
• The Holy Cross Shrine, of the 2 Cent Church, resides in Pfeifer, Kansas. This unique shrine and church were constructed from a 2-cent donation from every bushel of wheat sold by its church members.

Kansas In Pop Culture

• Kansas is the setting for the famous “Little House on the Prairie” children’s book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She grew up in the state and authored the books loosely around her childhood experiences. Television adaptations are based on these books. Now, in her hometown, her home in Independence, Kansas, has been turned into a museum commemorating her life and life on the prairies of Kansas.
• Kansas is also probably most famous for the “Wizard of Oz” books, musical, and film. The story is set in the state. Now, if you go to the Seward County Coronado Museum, you’ll find a replica of Dorothy’s home from the movie there.
• The rock band Kansas was birthed in Topeka, Kansas.

Bizarre Kansas Laws

• In Topeka, Kansas, it is illegal to sing the alphabet song out on the streets at night.
• Previously in Kansas, it was illegal to serve ice cream on top of cherry pie.
• You are not permitted to hunt rabbits from motorboats while in Kansas.
• And don’t you dare use mules while out hunting ducks!
• Despite being landlocked, far from any oceans or bodies of water where they live, folks in Kansas may not hunt whales.
• In 1881, Kansas became the first state in the Union to adopt the constitutional prohibition of alcohol. The law finally was repealed in 1948.
• In Debry County, Kansas, it is illegal for anyone to punch or hit a vending machine that steals money.

Other Fun and Funny Kansas Facts

• Kansas has had more meteorites found within the state than any other in the United States, save for Texas, west of the Mississippi River.
• Folks from Kansas City call themselves Jayhawks. No one can confirm why.
• The windiest city in the United States is not the Windy City (Chicago) but Dodge City, Kansas.
• In 1928, a tornado so strong hit Kansas that it actually partially plucked some chickens.
• Most folks think of Midwestern states as moderate to cold. But the hottest temperature ever recorded in Kansas was 121 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the state was -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Apart from English and Spanish, Vietnamese is the most commonly spoken language in Kansas.
• Every year about 61 tornadoes tear their way through Kansas.
• Built in 1874, the First United Methodist Church came to be during a plague and grasshoppers. Literally thousands of grasshoppers were mixed into the foundation, which remains in-tact today.
• In 1981, Kansas won the award for “most beautiful license plate” thanks to their signature wheat design on the plate.
• Once, hailstones weighing more than one and a half pounds fell in Coffeyville, Kansas.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © AndreyKrav/iStock via Getty Images