Kansas

Favorite old postcard of a (4th of July) parade
in a small town in America
in the early 1900's
It has no ID so it could be from any state

To me, Kansas is the beginning of the West.  It is one of the states that are situated in the area known as The Great Plains.  This is the land where pioneers staked a claim, built a sod hut and worked the land to begin their new life.  The western two thirds of the state is mainly flat land that is used to grow wheat and other crops.  The winds blow fiercely at times after they leave the Rocky Mountains so the heat of the summer is tempered by the winds. 

Winter seems colder because the wind has nothing to stop its momentum although sometimes there is a Chinook wind that makes it warmer.   This is where the sky seems enormous and the air is usually clear.  This is also where cowboy and boomtown legends like Dodge City and Abilene were born. 

Old Shawnee Town
http://www.shawneetown.org

You might also recall the setting for the movie “The Wizard of Oz” was Kansas.  It certainly is in “Tornado Alley”, the area of our country where the colder northwestern air meets with the southerly flow from the Gulf of Mexico to form these extreme storms. 

I have crossed Kansas many times.  When I was very young (6 to 10 years old) we lived in Nebraska and would travel through from north to south to visit my grandparents in Texas. 

Bethany Lutheran Church, est. 1872
Lindsborg, Kansas

In more recent times I traveled with one daughter to visit another daughter who was living in Colorado.  We were enjoying the road trip in a new little Honda but needed a break.  We saw billboards by the side of the road advertising a nearby town as “Little Sweden”.  We decided to explore and were delighted to find a marvelous little town called Lindsborg, just a few miles off Interstate highway 135.  It was settled around 1870 by Swedish immigrants and almost a third of the townspeople are descendents from these original pioneers.  There are furniture stores, a bakery, a store with carved wooden  toys, Dala horses of all sizes, plus other wonderful shops including a bookstore and a kitchen utensil shop.   Our little break turned into an afternoon of browsing and enjoying some special bakery items (from the Swedish Bakery of course!) along with tea and coffee.  Also in Lindsborg is Bethany College which boasts the Swedish Pavilion that was built for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.   

Field House, Fort Riley, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in Kansas and Topeka is the Capitol City.  There are many small towns ranging from a population of 5 up to the top five cities which are all over 100,000.  The eastern part of Kansas was formed by glaciers and consists of rolling hills and valleys.  The Pony Express, The Santa Fe Trail and Louis and Clark all have their history in Kansas. 

There is so much more to see and do than you would originally think since Kansas is not well known as a tourist destination.  Do check out their websites at  http://www.travelks.com/  for the State Tourism Information and http://visitdodgecity.org/  for Dodge City.  They are both interactive sites with lots of information for vacation ideas.