Kansas General Information Nickname: Sunflower State State bird: Western Meadowlark State flower: Sunflower Capital: Topeka Date of admission to the Union: 29th Jan 1861 Population: 2,688,418 (2000) Population density: 12.6/sq km 2000 total overseas arrivals: under 50,000 Time: Central (GMT - 6). Daylight Saving Time is observed. The State: The geographical centre of North America, Kansas is a major agricultural area, with vast areas of farmland. As highway signs remind travellers, ‘Every Kansas farmer feeds 75 people – and you.’ It was through Kansas that families on the Oregon and Santa Fe trails drove their wagons westwards in search of new homesteads, while cowboys on the Chisholm Trail drove vast herds of longhorns north in search of the railroads. To cater for the new population, cowtowns like Abilene and Dodge City were born, and as whites forced Native Americans to move westwards, fierce battles over land erupted. Later, feuds over Kansas’s maintenance of slavery gave rise to the term ‘Bleeding Kansas’. Today, the State boasts many monuments to its Old West past, as well as numerous recreation centres, reservoirs and rivers offering all kinds of outdoor pursuits. Attractions include the restored cattle town of Dodge City. Here, it is worth visiting the Boot Hill Museum which recreates the Boot Hill Cemetery and Front Street as they looked in the 1870s. Near Boot Hill is the Wax Museum, which is also home to the Kansas Teachers’ Hall of Fame. Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, famed today for aircraft manufacture, is home to the Museums on the River District, which includes an art museum and a botanical garden. Particularly worth a visit are the Old Cowtown Museum, which introduces visitors to the cattle days of the 1870s with an open-air history exhibit, and the Mid-America All-Indian Center, where traditional and modern works by Native American artists are on display. For those hungry for the centre of the action, a trip to the stone monument 3km (2 miles) northwest of Lebanon on the northern border of the State is a must – it is the centre point of the entire USA. Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.