THINGS TO DO IN KANSAS

Demographics

Statehood: January 29, 1861, the 34th state

Capital: Topeka

Total Area: 15th among states, 213,109 sq km (82,282 sq mi)

Water Area: 1,189 sq km (459 sq mi)

Highest Point: Mount Sunflower, 1,231 m (4,039 ft)

Total Population:  32nd among states
2000 census -  2,688,418
2005 estimate -  2,774,687

Population Density in 2000: 12 people per sq km (32 per sq mi)

Distribution in 1990: 69% Urban, 31% Rural

Economy:
Gross State Product - $93 billion (2003)
Personal income per Capita - $29,438 (2003)

Largest cities in 2000:
Wichita: 353,823
Overland Park: 160,368
Kansas City: 146,866

Dodge City is the windiest city in the United States.
In 1990 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves.
At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
Pizza Hut restaurants opened its first store in Wichita, Kansas.
A grain elevator in Hutchinson is ½ mile long and holds 46 million bushels in its 1,000 bins.
In Lucas, Civil War veteran S.P. Dinsmoor used over 100 tons of concrete to build the Garden of Eden. Even the flag is made of concrete.
Russell Springs in Logan County is known as the Cow Chip Capital of Kansas.
At Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine waterbeds are used in surgery for horses.
The graham cracker was named after the Reverend Sylvester Graham. He was a minister who strongly believed in eating whole-wheat flour products.
Sumner County is known as the Wheat Capital of the World.
In 1919 the first airplane factory in Kansas was built in Wichita, which became one of the nation's top plane manufacturing cities.
Dwight Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Abeline, Kansas in 1890.
Kansas was a crucial battleground in the fight over slavery between 1858-1859, and was finally admitted as a free state in 1861, just before the Civil War.

State Facts