Close to the border with Missouri in the southeast of Kansas, Pittsburg is a city that grew up around a coal mining camp in the 1870s. The terrain all around Pittsburg testifies to decades of strip mining, which left behind indentations that have since become narrow lakes framed by wooded ridges. Make time for downtown …
The origins of the largest city in northwestern Kansas go back to a U.S. Army frontier outpost founded on the Smoky Hill Trail in 1865. Soldiers at Fort Hays were tasked with protecting travelers and freight wagons against the Arapaho and Cheyenne who hunted bison on the Great Plains. In the frontier days, Hays was …
In the remote southwest of Kansas, Liberal is a city with a name that describes the area’s first settler, one S. S. Rogers. He had a reputation for being generous, or liberal, with his water, to the relief of many a thirsty traveler crossing this arid landscape. Liberal is in the very heart of the …
The seat of Harvey County in south-central Kansas has a unique place in Kansas history. For a time this was a sketchy town in the Old West, before the railroads enabled a wave of Mennonite immigration from the old Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire. The Mennonites brought with them Turkey Red hard winter wheat, …
A suburban city east of Wichita, Andover has more than doubled in population since 2000, and has the feel of a small town just minutes from the largest city in Kansas. Andover was established as long ago as 1880, but the city’s modern story begins with a catastrophic event in 1991. A rare F5 tornado …
The seat of Franklin County in eastern Kansas, Ottawa is a welcoming town with a vibrant Main Street, lots of exciting events and spellbinding architecture from the 19th and early 20th century. Many of the finest landmarks in Ottawa, including the Franklin County Courthouse, were designed by the noted architect, George P. Washburn (1846-1922), whose …
Founded in 1871, Great Bend started out as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail, where the Arkansas River literally bends from northeast to east. Buffalo hunting was a way of life in those early years, and once the Great Bend was connected to the railroad in 1872 it became a rowdy cowtown typical of …
Southern Indiana’s largest city is on an oxbow in the Ohio River, looking across the water to Kentucky. Home to three NYSE companies, Evansville is a regional center for commerce, manufacturing and higher education, but also culture, with important performing arts venues and museums. Downtown Evansville resonates with history, keeping many of its early 20th …
Often listed among the best places to live in America, Carmel is a suburban city north of Indianapolis that has grown exponentially since the 1990s. The story of Carmel goes back to a town called Bethlehem, platted in the 1830s. Today a lot of the city’s commerce, dining and culture is in modern, smartly designed …
Looking at Fishers today it’s hard to believe that as recently as the 1950s just a couple of hundred people lived here. The earliest Euro-American resident was the famed trapper William Conner, who in 1802 settled a plot of land on the east bank of the White River, now preserved as the fantastic Conner Prairie …