Kansas may not be huge in area, but it’s had big impact on history

Whether you’ve just moved to Kansas or have been here for generations, there are things every Kansan should know about the state.

On this Sunday, we celebrate Kansas Day, marking 156 years of statehood.

So in honor of the 34th state, The Eagle asked several Kansans to give us their thoughts: What are some of the essential things every Kansan needs to know about where they live?

The basics

We are a sparsely populated state by comparison to California with its 37 million people and Texas with 25 million residents. We rank 33rd in the nation, with 2.8 million residents.

Alaska is the largest state by area, with 663,267 square miles; Kansas is 15th, with nearly 82,276 square miles.

Some people think the state is flat and boring.

It’s not.

Kansas has the Flint Hills, the Gyp or Red Hills, the Smoky Hills, Arikaree Breaks, Chautauqua Hills, the Cimarron Grasslands, the Glacial Hills and two international wetlands of importance: Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms.

Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, suggests residents form a bucket list of things every Kansan needs to do at least once. Her recommendations include:

▪ Sing our state song at the “Home on the Range” cabin in Smith County.

▪ See a buffalo herd at either Canton, Clifton, Haven, Alma or Garden City.

▪ Hike to the top of Mount Sunflower in Wallace County.

▪ Take a scenic drive in every one of the 11 physiographic regions.

▪ Eat at a local cafe.

▪ Tour the Kansas Capitol.

▪ Watch a wheat harvest.

▪ Take a lawn chair and a blanket and watch the stars envelop the sky at Monument Rocks.

“Horizons can draw out the imagination, but immeasurable tangible beauty is waiting for those who look closely at the living prairie beneath our feet,” said Jim Gray, cowboy historian and director of the National Drover’s Hall of Fame in Ellsworth.

‘Bleeding Kansas’

Kansas ignited the first sparks in the Civil War.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed on May 30, 1854, and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce, created the Kansas Territory. The act said that the residents of the new territories would decide whether they would join the Union as a slave state or a free state.

Almost immediately, Kansas became a battleground for pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces.

The era of “Bleeding Kansas” – from 1854 to 1861, the year of statehood – led up to the Civil War and set the tone in terms of violence and polarization for what the war would do to the entire nation.

In the fall of 1859, John Brown led members of his family and followers from Kansas to attack the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va. His goal was to incite a national slave rebellion.

Brown’s plan failed, and he was hanged. But his radical fervor added to the growing tensions between the North and the South.

Crossroads to new lands

Kansas has trails blazed by American Indians, traders, the military and cattlemen. A 1969 study by two Wichita State University professors listed as many as 121 trails in Kansas.

But the state is especially known for overland trails, which helped the nation expand to new territories and initiate trade with neighboring countries.

Think of the trail names that cross through Kansas: Lewis and Clark, Pony Express, Oregon, Santa Fe, Chisholm and Butterfield Overland.

“Kansas has always been a crossroads because of our geographical location,” said Leo Oliva, Kansas historian and author. “Not only did we have the overland trails, but the railroads and highways have also gone through.

“Most people were almost always going through to get somewhere else.”

Although the first major railroad in Kansas would not be constructed until 1867, railroads would soon bring jobs and settlers to the state and influence town development.

On Sept. 5, 1867, the first load of cattle to be shipped via rail left Kansas. This positioned Kansas as a leader in the nation’s beef industry – first as the place where Texas cattle were driven along the Chisholm Trail to be shipped east by railroad, then as a producer of quality beef from shorthorn cattle and Herefords.

Struggles

Kansas is known as much for its struggles as its successes, particularly once the territory became a state.

▪ Wichita was the first city in the nation to have a successful sit-in to protest racial inequality. Late in the summer of 1958, several members of the youth chapter of the NAACP staged a sit-in at the lunch counter at the Dockum Drug Store, on the southeast corner of Douglas and Broadway.

Their nonviolent effort resulted in Dockum and eventually other stores across the state providing seated service for blacks.

▪ The Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that said segregation is unconstitutional has its roots in Kansas.

At the time, Kansas law permitted segregated elementary schools in cities of at least 15,000 or more. The all-black Monroe School in Topeka was 20 blocks from the Oliver Brown family home; a school for whites was much closer.

The NAACP filed suit in 1951. When the case reached the Supreme Court, it was combined with other NAACP cases under the heading of Oliver L. Brown et. al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka et. al.

Thurgood Marshall served as chief counsel for the NAACP. He later was appointed the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

▪ As many as 90 American Indian tribes were removed to Kansas in the mid-19th century as part of the Indian Removal Act. Hundreds of American Indians lost their lives during their first few years here.

More than 800 Pottawatomie Indians were forced to walk more than 600 miles from Indiana to Kansas on what came to be known as the Pottawatomie Trail of Death.

Women’s rights

When the Wyandotte Constitution was being discussed and written in the summer of 1859, women’s rights was a topic.

Provisions regarding child custody, property rights for married women and equality in matters pertaining to public schools were included in the final draft of the state constitution. This placed Kansas ahead of most other states in terms of women’s rights.

At one time, Susan B. Anthony, co-founder of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association, lived in Kansas. Her brother, Daniel, moved to Leavenworth and became active in the anti-slavery movement. In 1867, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton campaigned in Kansas for women’s rights.

When the Homestead Act – which encouraged Western migration by giving settlers 160 acres of public land – was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, it also presented a proving ground for women.

“Kansas was one of the first places for the Homestead Act to be tested for gender neutrality,” said Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, director of the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at Kansas State University. “It said ‘the head of the household (could own land).’ It didn’t specify you had to be a male head of the household.

“So there were a lot of single women who were intrepid land owners.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Kansas may not be huge in area, but it’s had big impact on history."