In 2025, Kansas will be 164 years old! Here are some fun historical facts about our great state.
What is Kansas Day?
We celebrate our state’s birthday every January 29th. It is the day in 1861 when Kansas became the 34th state. A teacher from Paola came up with the idea for Kansas Day in 1877. A few years later, schools in Topeka, Lawrence, Emporia, Wichita and Fort Scott were also celebrating with lessons that taught about the Sunflower State. Today, we celebrate by discovering new places to explore in Kansas and finding out what makes our state unique and cool.
Sing It!
Instead of singing “Happy Birthday,” some people sing the state’s official song to celebrate. This song is “Home on the Range.” Dr. Brewster Higley wrote it as a poem. He called it “My Western Home” and shared it with people in 1873. Dr. Higley’s words talk about the beauty of the land around his cabin home. If you have ever sung the song, you know it is about buffalo, deer, antelope and skies. Even though Dr. Higley wrote the words when he lived near West Beaver Creek, he did not include any beavers in his poem.
Kansas Day Edventure Program
You can take a virtual Kansas Day field trip across the state! Wichita Public Schools hosts an “Edventure” program every Kansas Day. This January 29 virtual tour features zookeepers, historians, scientists, environmentalists and more. Other Edventures are set for 2025.
What Makes Kansas So Cool?
- The first battle of the Civil War started in Kansas … five years before the Civil War began! How is this possible? In 1856, a group of Kansans against enslavement beat back a group of fighters who were for enslavement. This fight was later known as the Battle of Black Jack. Even though it was fought before the war officially started, it was fought for the same reasons as other Civil War battles.
- Kansas was the center of a very important Supreme Court case. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling said that public schools could no longer separate Black and white students. This decision in 1952 was an important victory in the civil rights movement.
- Kansas elected the first woman mayor in the entire United States! Susanna Salter became mayor of Argonia in 1887. She received letters of congratulations from France, Italy, Germany and Austria.
A Ghost in the Capitol?
Sometimes, strange footsteps and tapping noises ring out in the capitol. Some believe this is a ghost of a man who helped build it. Constructing the Kansas capitol was hard and dangerous. Legend has it, a man working high in the dome lost his balance and fell to his death. Because he died before he was paid, his spirit is said to roam the building looking for the money he earned. Other times, people say, the ghost returns to finish his work. Tap … tap … tap!
(Mostly) Peaceful Debates
The state capitol is a public monument. It is also a building where men and women from every region in Kansas meet to make laws for the state. Sometimes the lawmakers agree, and sometimes they disagree. Once, in 1893, there were huge arguments. Tempers flared. Some lawmakers blocked themselves inside the House chamber (where the lawmakers gather to vote on laws). The other group took a sledgehammer and smashed through the doors. Soon, soldiers were called to the capitol, and a Gatling gun—an early machine gun—was placed outside the building. The fight lasted two days. Nobody died, but the event was not forgotten. If you tour the capitol, guides show you where the fighting took place!
Building the State Capitol
The governor and legislature wanted to build one of the best capitols in the United States. They thought our capitol should be as good as or better than the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. It took 37 years to build the capitol; a grand opening was held in 1903. The outside is made from Kansas limestone, and the inside has 17 kinds of marble. It’s the tallest building in Topeka.
Bison Stats
- In 2016, the American bison was declared the national mammal of the United States, but it had already been Kansas’ state animal since 1955.
- Bison are the largest land mammals in the United States! Some males can grow to 6 feet tall and weigh 2,000 pounds.
- Bison are heavy but fast when they need to be. They can run up to 35 miles per hour and jump 6 feet in the air!
- Both male and female bison have horns. Males, called bulls, have larger horns than the females, called cows.
- Do you like eating greens? Bison love foraging on grasses, weeds and plants. They spend up to 11 hours a day eating.
- Bison are migratory herd animals, meaning they stay close to each other and move from place to place.
Wait, Wait! Bison or Buffalo?
The correct term is “American bison,” but many people know these shaggy mammals as buffalo. The word buffalo came from the French “les boeufs,” which means oxen or beef. In the late 1700s, some 30 to 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains.
These animals were, and still are, hugely important to Indigenous people. Bison were used for food, clothing, tools, shelter and many other essential items. But European settlers hunted bison, often just to kill them. By the 1880s, there were only a few hundred bison in the entire United States. Through conservation and recovery efforts, there are now hundreds of thousands of bison.
Ad Astra Per Aspera and the State Seal
The state motto of Kansas is Ad Astra per Aspera, Latin for “to the stars through difficulties.” One place you can see our motto is on our state seal. The seal has many symbols of Kansas. There is a log cabin, a steamboat, Native Americans, and 34 stars at the top because Kansas is the 34th state.
