Kansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

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

—At 104, Ralph Waldo McBurney of Quinter (pop. 961) continues to work each day, raising bees and selling honey, along with his autobiography, My First 100 Years: A Look Back from the Finish Line. He was honored as “America’s Oldest Worker for 2006” by Experience Works, a national job-training and employment service for seniors.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

—Visitors to the Four State Lookout in White Cloud (pop. 239) can see parts of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—Jack Kilby, who helped usher in the Information Age with his 1958 invention, grew up in Great Bend (pop. 15,345) and developed the integrated circuit, or microchip, while working for Texas Instruments in Dallas. Kilby (1923-2005) also invented the pocket calculator and received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Finished in 1918, the limestone Holy Cross Church in the farming community of Pfeifer is sometimes called the “two-cent church” because to finance the building, parishioners were assessed two cents on every bushel of wheat sold.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—Since 1912, the University of Kansas at Lawrence has sounded a steam whistle on campus to mark the end of each class hour. When the campus whistle “blew its stack” in 2003, donors replaced it with a new one.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—John W. Peterson wrote more than 1,000 gospel hymns, including “Surely Goodness and Mercy” and “It Took a Miracle.” The Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee was born in 1921 in Lindsborg (pop. 3,321).

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—Built just after the Civil War of hand-hewn cottonwood logs, the C.N. James Log Cabin in Augusta (pop. 8,423) housed the city’s first school, post office and general store. The pioneer cabin remains on its original site.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

Known as the world’s greatest meteorite hunter, Harvey H. Nininger, born in 1887 in Conway Springs (pop. 1,322), amassed a vast collection of space rocks and opened the world’s first meteorite museum in 1946 near Meteor Crater in Winslow, Ariz. (pop. 9,520).

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—Jakub Voboril, 17, made perfect scores on two major college entrance exams this year: a 36 on the American College Testing exam (ACT) and a 2400 on the SAT Reasoning Test. A senior this year at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School in Wichita, Voboril hasn’t decided what he’ll study in college, but is considering math, philosophy and law.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—More than 10,000 fans of Mattel’s toy Hot Wheels cars converged on the town of Speed (pop. 44) in August for a daylong party honoring the automotive industry’s impact on rural America. The event included a Miss Hot Wheels pageant, parade and an attempt to build the world’s longest Hot Wheels track. Temperatures soared past 100 and warped the orange plastic racetrack.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—In 1956, cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez opened a shoe store in Topeka with a revolutionary approach: self-service. Today, Payless ShoeSource is one of the nation’s leading shoe retailers.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil, 94, became the oldest-ever professional baseball player in July when he signed a one-day contract and played with the Kansas City T-Bones. O’Neil died in October.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—Topeka is the self-proclaimed birthplace of Alfred E. Neuman, the goofy logo character of Mad magazine. Before making the magazine’s cover, the drawing of the smiling gap-toothed boy served as a local dentist’s logo to advertise his pain-free services.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—A sweeping prairie view is the star attraction at the Cimarron National Grassland, which sprawls over 108,000 acres near Elkhart (pop. 2,233) and includes part of the Santa Fe Trail. This is the state’s largest expanse of public land.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

In 1949, the Merci Train arrived from France with 49 boxcars—one for each state and one shared by the District of Columbia and Territory of Hawaii—loaded with gifts of appreciation to America for the food and supplies sent to the war-torn country after World War II. The restored Kansas Merci Boxcar is at the American Legion Hall in Hays (pop. 20,013).

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Settlers named Great Bend (pop. 15,345) for its location on a big bend in the Arkansas River. The Barton County (pop. 28,205) seat also was a popular stopping point and trading center on the Santa Fe Trail.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

Some farmers in Kiowa County (pop. 3,278) are harvesting a new crop: meteorites. A 1,400-pound meteorite, classified as a pallasite, is among more than a dozen space rocks unearthed from local fields since last fall. A 20-pounder can fetch $20,000.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

Ingalls (pop. 328) is named after John Ingalls, the lawyer and statesman who suggested the state motto "Ad Astra per Aspera," which translates "To the stars through difficulties" and is included on the state seal adopted in 1861.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

The rolling Flint Hills in the east-central part of the state were named by explorer Zebulon Pike in 1806 for the cobbles of flint-like chert glinting through the tall prairie grasses.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

When his wife, Sarah, died in 1930, John Davis of Hiawatha (pop. 3,417) commissioned an elaborate tomb at Mount Hope Cemetery with 11 detailed, life-size marble and granite statues depicting both of them at various stages of marriage. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the gravesite is a top tourist attraction for the town.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.