The state of Kansas was named "Konza, or people of the south wind," by the Sioux Indians long before Spanish and French adventurers traveled through the state looking for gold and lost cities. Several countries claimed portions of Kansas until 1803 when it was purchased by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the Civil War, Kansans were torn as clashes between pro- and anti-slavery forces earned the state the nickname "Bleeding Kansas." Kansas became the country's 34th state in 1861 with Topeka as its capital.
Today, Kansas is a study in progress. It has successfully surpassed its humble beginnings as a vast, untamed expanse of rolling prairie - home to cattle drives and cowtowns, infamous outlaws like the Dalton gang and legendary lawmen like Wyatt Earp and "Wild Bill" Hickok - to become a thriving industrial and agricultural state.
Ranked 14th in geographical size in the United States, Kansas is a leading producer of wheat, beef, hay and sunflowers. Almost 91 percent of the 82,282 square miles in Kansas is devoted to agriculture and this booming industry contributes approximately $10 billion to the Kansas economy each year. As the center of the 48 contiguous states, Kansas is an attractive location for many companies serving national and international markets. In addition, mining, oil production, natural gas and helium, meatpacking and automobile manufacturing have all developed into vital industries for the new millennium.
Kansas was the first state to ratify the 15th Amendment giving black people the right to vote, the first to direct primary election of senators, the home of the first Pizza Hut and the first monkey in space, and the place where baseball was first played under lights. Famous Kansans include the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Amelia Earhart of Atchison, Lynette Woodard, captain of the gold-medal winning U.S. Women's Basketball team, football great Barry Sanders, and the actors Edward Asner and Kristie Alley.
Despite its strength and presence in a global environment, the key to understanding Kansas can still be traced back in history to its rich and diverse heritage. Leave any city in Kansas for a drive on wide, modern expressways, such as Interstates 35 and 70, and take a step back into panoramic vistas of tall whispering grass, rolling prairies with grazing herds and flat endless miles of wheat waving in a southern wind. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers crossed the Heart of America flatlands in the great expansion westward. In fact, the Santa Fe and Oregon trails are still marked in western Kansas. General George Custer formed the famed 7th Cavalry at Fort Riley in 1866. His horse, Comanche, the only survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, is preserved through taxidermy at the Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Kansas. And a monument to the victims who died when Confederate raider William Quantrill burned the city of Lawrence in 1863 stands in Oak Hill cemetery on the east side of Lawrence.
From border to border, the state of Kansas is honored by its past and excited about its future -but it also has a lighter side. Some of the most popular attractions in Kansas include the world's largest ball of twine in Cawker City, measuring 40 feet in circumference and weighing 17,000 pounds. The "Big Well," located in Greensburg, is the world's largest hand-dug well, measuring 32 feet across and 109 feet deep. Also in Greensburg is the Pallasite Meteorite, made up mostly of nickel and iron, it weighs 1,000 pounds. Finally, in West Mineral, Big Brutus towers over the town. Brutus is a 15-story coal shovel, one of the two largest in the world, and a popular tourist attraction.