My Month In Kansas

My Take On Kansas

where I went this month

Kansas's land

The topography in Kansas was a real surprise for me, and that's my own fault.  My pre-trip research told me that, except in the western third or so of the state, Kansas was a hilly state.  I guess that was so not what I expected that I ignored it.  Reality has a way of intruding whether you want it to or not.

At any rate, far western Kansas is flat, as I'd thought.  The rest of the state has hills of increasing height going east.  Similarly, far western Kansas has very few trees, while there are actual forests in far eastern Kansas.

I was surprised at the number and variety of geologic oddities, such as the Monument Rocks and Mushroom Rock State Park.

Kansas is a much more attractive state than I'd expected it to be.

Agriculture in Kansas

The vast majority of the land is being used for agriculture of one kind or another.  Kansas has some manufacturing and other kinds of industries, but most of the state's economy relies on agriculture.  

Television news broadcasts include daily ag reports.  And the newspaper in Dodge City included a quarterly insert about Kansas agriculture, with information from Kansas State University experts and their research.

One of the topics was fall grazing options for cattle.  I had no idea there was so much involved in planning strategies for how to feed cows during the fall.  For instance, if a farmer wanted to save money on the labor and supplies needed to simply feed hay to cows in feedlot, he'd want to consider how to improve results from grazing lands.  He might want to keep his herd away from a field long enough for forage to grow there.  He might even want to plant grasses in a field to give high quality feed for his herd, instead of "old, nasty, tall dormant forage," the report said.

Another article discussed the effect of rising temperatures, which are reducing corn and soybean yields.  And the result of that is an increase in the insurance premiums farmers are having to pay.  These weren't results of climate change I'd ever thought of.  As a side note, the article never used the phrase "climate change."  Even higher losses in yields than with rising temps come from the drought that's been a problem for some time.  The combination of heat and drought has been a real problem for Kansas farmers.

Still another article described some of the varieties of winter wheat and their different performance in different counties.  It noted that a farmer would want to plant the variety that worked best in that particular county.

All this and more was in the fall edition of this publication.  I imagine there'd be a similar range of topics in the editions for the other seasons.  It's obvious that agriculture is a far more complex field than it might seem to those of us who have had a backyard garden.  And Kansas farmers have been successful.

Kansas is one of the top wheat-producing states in the US and the top flour-milling state.  Kansas is the 2nd largest state for beef cattle and tops in the world for meatpacking plants.  So, like I said, agriculture is the mover of Kansas's economy.

Kansas's people
There aren't many population centers in Kansas, and most of them are in a sort of corridor from Kansas City west to Topeka.  Wichita, in the south, is the state's largest city, and west of there are Dodge City and Garden City, both decent-sized cities.  Otherwise, Kansas is a rural state, ranked 40th out of 50 states for population density.  

When people live in a somewhat isolated area, they develop self-reliance.  When people rely on agriculture to make a living, they develop stubbornness and optimism.  They also depend on their neighbors to a degree that might surprise people who live in cities.

And unsurprisingly, these are the qualities I found in the people I met in Kansas.  They weren't particularly friendly or outgoing, but maybe that's because this isn't a tourist destination state - they may just not be geared to being friendly toward strangers.

Almost everyone I talked to said they liked where they lived, and almost always it was because of liking the people who lived there.  Most of them also said they lived where they'd lived all their lives, so I think Kansans value permanence.

Driving in Kansas

That's part of the state seal in the background.

This state doesn't issue a front license plate, and this photo shows the standard rear plate.  Kansas issues quite a few specialty plates, and they're popular.  But I was surprised that I almost never saw a personalized plate.

In general, the roads in Kansas aren't bad, except that so many of them - even the US Routes - are 2 lanes with no shoulder to speak of.  It looks as if Kansas roads are geared to the rural populations and act like farm-to-market roads.

Although even the smallest towns can have museums for local history, none of them tries to be a tourist destination outside of the largest cities.  The road system reflects this.

My experience driving here for a month was mixed.  In several cities I found drivers that honked their horns at intersections and refused to let me merge into their lanes, but in general throughout the state drivers were ordinarily polite.

What I didn't see that I wanted to see

Not a lot, actually.  You can see from the map above that I really tried to get around most of the state.  I'd intended to leave the state by driving from Wellington back over to Dodge City and then go south through Liberal, where there are movie sets from Wizard of Oz.  That would have helped finish covering that area of Kansas.  But doing that would have made it hard for me to cover places in the Texas Panhandle I wanted to see.

I think I mentioned in my blog posts all of the places I'd hoped to visit but missed for one reason or another.  There are enough of them that it'd justify another trip here.

My conclusion

I liked Kansas, the state.  This isn't a place I'd want to live in, partly because of the total lack of access to ocean or mountains, but also because of the people.  Those who already live here like it because of their neighbors, but I found them not a particularly welcoming bunch.  

In fact, I found the state itself more welcoming than the folks who live here.  I found Kansas to be interesting and varied, qualities I never expected to find here.  I'm glad I came.