Kansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

Looking for Kansas trivia? Try our list Kansas little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—Born in 1923 in El Dorado (pop. 12,057), cartoonist Mort Walker is best known for the comic strip Beetle Bailey, about a work-shirking U.S. Army private, which was syndicated in 1950.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—The world’s longest chain of pennies—40 miles long—was laid by volunteers in Fort Scott (pop. 8,297) in July. The group also set down a mile of pennies in a world-record time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 1 second. The events raised money for the city’s Ellis Park.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—Built in 1893, the Chapel of the Veterans in Leavenworth (pop. 68,691) can hold Protestant and Catholic religious services under one roof at the same time. The lower level is the Catholic chapel, named the Holy Ghost Chapel, and the upper level is the Protestant chapel, called Immanuel Chapel.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—The 1911 St. Fidelis Catholic Church in Victoria (pop. 1,208) was nicknamed “Cathedral of the Plains” by William Jennings Bryan, who was awed by the majestic limestone structure and its 141-foot-tall towers.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—Open since 1925, Eisler Brothers Old Riverton Store along U.S. Route 66 in Riverton is treasured by locals and Route 66 fans. The deli and grocery store’s interior remains much the same as when it opened.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—Students at Jackson Heights High School near Holton (pop. 3,353) have a unique visual aid when discussing the Cold War. Their school was a former nuclear missile base, which was sold to the school district for a dollar in the 1960s.

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—The oldest Mennonite liberal arts college in North America is Bethel College, founded in 1887, in North Newton (pop. 1,522).

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—Randolph Cabral, president of the Kansas Braille Transcription Institute in Wichita, designed a Braille flag in memory of his late father, a World War II veteran who flew the flag until he no longer could see it because of glaucoma. The tactile flag informs the blind of the flag’s colors, stripes and stars.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—In the late 1940s, Forest P. Gill, a Kansas City, Mo., printer, combined two recently developed products—fluorescent ink and self-sticking adhesive—and invented the self-sticking bumper sticker. Gill-line in Lenexa (pop. 40,238) continues to manufacture bumper stickers.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—From 1893 to 1922, Junction City (pop. 18,886) photographer Joseph Judd Pennell took thousands of photos that document the people and history of the town. One of his classic photos of a Junction City bar became part of the opening credits for the NBC comedy Cheers.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—Dating from 1889, the oldest shopping district in the state is Aggieville, a four-block region in Manhattan (pop. 44,831), featuring more than 100 shops, restaurants and bars near Kansas State University.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Ed and Dianna Peden converted a former missile silo, built near Topeka in the early 1960s to house an Atlas E missile, into their home. The silo dwellers since have become the world’s foremost sellers of the Cold War missile sites.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—Buffalo and elk herds roam on 2,800 acres of preserved native grass prairie at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Canton (pop. 829). An observation tower and tram rides offer a look at the animals.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—The state’s first Olympic gold medalist was John Kuck, who won the shot put in 1928 while a student at Kansas State Teachers College, now Emporia State University in Emporia (pop. 26,760).

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—The Rock Chalk Chant used by fans of the University of Kansas in Lawrence since the late 1880s was called the greatest college cheer by President Theodore Roosevelt. The words are simple—“Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, KU”—but the cadence has been compared to a Gregorian chant. “Rock chalk” refers to the region’s limestone rocks.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—A granite memorial near Osborne (pop. 1,607) is a tribute to 11 servicemen who died in September 1943 when their B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into a nearby hillside during a training flight in stormy weather.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—Founded in 1854, Lecompton (pop. 608) originally was named Bald Eagle, but later was changed to Lecompton in honor of Samuel D. Lecompte, the chief justice of the territorial Supreme Court.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—An 1879 stone Dutch windmill commands the high ground at Wamego (pop. 4,246) City Park. The 40-foot windmill once stood on the farm of a Dutch immigrant and was dismantled in the 1920s, relocated and reconstructed in the park.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—Since 1977, Manhattan (pop. 44,831) has billed itself as “The Little Apple” since Manhattan in New York City is the heart of “The Big Apple.”

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—The Smith Center (pop. 1,931) High School Redmen scored a whopping 72 points in the first quarter of a football game last October against Plainville (Kan.) High School and racked up what is believed to be a record for points in a quarter by a high school team. The previous record was 66 points, scored by Prescott (Ariz.) High School in 1925.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

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