Kansas is one of the 50 states of the United States of America. The state is located in the Midwest region of the US and has 2,871,238 inhabitants (2011). The capital is Topeka and the standard abbreviation for the state is KS.
Kansas, the most southwestern state in the Midwestern United States region, is bordered to the north by the state of Nebraska, to the east by Missouri, to the south by Oklahoma and to the west by Colorado.
Kansas is also the name of the great river in the east of the state. The river flows from Tuttle Creek Lake and empties into the Missouri.
Outside the urban areas, the state consists mainly of vast and very sparsely populated plains. These are used for both agriculture and livestock.
The Great Plains are located in western Kansas. These gradually merge into the prairies to the east.
The Smoky Hills are centrally located in Kansas.
The extreme southeast of the state belongs to the high ground on which the Ozark Plateau lies.
The drainage is mainly through the Kansas and Arkansas rivers, which flow into the Missouri and Mississippi respectively.
Climate and tourism
Kansas has a continental climate. The state is frequently ravaged by tornadoes and hail storms.
Several forts line the Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail, the routes along which 19th-century pioneers traveled from east to west. These are Fort Dodge, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Larned and Fort Scott.
Dodge City is a restored Wild West town.
Natural beauty can be found in the Tuttle Creek Reservoir area and in a number of national parks.
Cities
Besides the capital Topeka are a number of other cities in Kansas: Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Lawrence, Shawnee, Manhattan, Lenexa, Salina, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Leawood.
Dodge City, Garden City, Emporia, Junction City, Derby, Prairie Village, Liberal, Hays, Pittsburg, Newton, Gardner, Great Bend.
Kansas Counties
According to countryaah.com, the state of Kansas is administratively subdivided into 105 counties.
Kansas
Kansas borders the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado. The state capital is Wichita.
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Fort Larned National Historic Site is located near the town of Larned, Kansas. In 1859, Fort Larned was built here, which served as a base for military forces. Hostile Indian tribes from the Central Plains constantly attacked people traveling along the Santa Fe Trail here.
An office was established here to deal with the Indian question. It was here that the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 were drawn up. The agreement clarified the relationship between the United States of America, the six Cheyenne chiefs and the four Arapaho Indian tribes. To date, 9 buildings have been preserved here, but they had to be reconstructed after the Indian wars that took place here. Many of the buildings, such as the barracks, commissariat or headquarters, are still equipped with original period furniture and look like they did years ago. Most of the buildings were built of yellowish hewn stone.
Fort Scott National Historic Site
About 160 km from Kansas City, which is the capital of the state of Kansas, lies the town of Fort Scott located on the Marmaton River in Bourbon County. Today, around 8,000 people live here. One of Fort Scott’s biggest tourist attractions is the Fort Scott National Historic Site, which protects 20 historically significant structures spread over 20 square kilometers.
Part of this historic site is Fort Scott, built in 1842, which, like the entire city, was named after Winfield Scott, who was a United States Army general and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1852. The fort was built on the American border, on the military trail between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Gibson. It was founded in the times of a massive influx of immigrants from the east of the USA.
Fort Scott thus became part of a chain of forts that served to protect new settlers from Indian tribes, but also vice versa. They simply cared about peace and tranquility between the white and Indian populations. The United States also had permanent possession of many Indian territories west of the Missouri River, but these later proved to be insignificant. Fort Scott’s most active period was from 1842 to 1853.
On October 19, 1978, Fort Scott and its surroundings became a National Historic Site and were opened to the public. Today it is open to visitors all year round, it is closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Around 30,000 people visit here every year, who want to get to know the history of the area and, in fact, of the whole of Kansas.
