On the southwestern edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Gardner is a suburban city surrounded by prairie and farmland. For much of the westward expansion in the 19th century, travelers passed through this land on long and arduous wagon journeys. Just outside modern day Gardner was where the Oregon and California Trails diverged from …
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 …
Sitting on the southeast side of the Kansas City metro area, Olathe is the seat of Johnson County and has the fourth highest population in the state. Olathe is much more than a suburb, with a first-class arts scene, captivating attractions and sprawling parks that have lakes with marinas and beaches. The city has a …
In the southeast of the Kansas City metro area, Shawnee is an ever-growing suburban city with historic origins as the religious and political center of the Shawnee Indians. During the days of the westward expansion, branches of the Oregon, California and Santa Fe Trails ran through what is now Shawnee, while there was a ferry …