A Travel Guide to Kansas
Kansas is the most central state in the contiguous United States. Its capital Topeka lies in the north east of Kansas towards the borders of Nebraska to the north and Missouri to the east. It is an ideal starting place to acquire the taste of Kansas, its museums will set the pace by learning about some of the many tribes of North American Indians that lived there and the great transportation network of the railways that kickstarted the joining of the United States of America. It is also the starting place of one of the nominated Wonders of Kansas with its beauty depicted in the murals of John Steuart Curry - one of the great American painters.
North of the Central Plains in Republic County is a museum dedicated to the Pawnee Indians, it details their existence showing artefacts that depict their daily living, customs and rituals. Westward of Central Kansas brings you to the first natural landmark chosen by the United States Department of Interior. They are often called the Chalk Pyramids though more commonly known as Monument Rocks - crafted by geological climatic changes from many millennia ago when the sea bed rose to become land.
In contrast, another Wonder moves eastwards towards the heart of Kansas and that is the creative manmade sculpture park of the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Russell County. These were crafted by Samuel Perry Dinsmoor, who served during the Civil War and later became a retired teacher and sculptor. He fashioned a log cabin out of choice wood and limestone with over 200 concrete sculptures adorning his land. His deliberate intentions were to attract people of which admissions helped to fund his later life. Still today, even in his death you can observe him viewing himself in his coffin set aside as a mausoleum for him and his family.
The very best of Kansas, however, is in the very center itself, an illustrative masterpiece, where natural wilds exceed our expectations and belief. The Cheyenne Bottoms/Quivera National Wildlife Refuge lies over two counties of Barton and Stafford. It is a 41,000 acre lowland basin and enjoys the status of having one of the largest wetlands in the United States. It attracts over three hundred bird species, migrated and local, including some of those on the endangered and threatened lists.
Not to be outdone is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve & the Flint Hills in Chase County in the central eastern area. This Preserve celebrates what was once the prolific covering of Tallgrass that used to carpet most of the contiguous United States. The penultimate is another conservational challenge to preserve the shortgrass prairie and two other natural eco-systems at the Cimarron National Grassland in Morton County. This lies on Kansas’s furthest southeast area that borders with Oklahoma and Colorado. Finally, the crown of Kansas must be the wonderful exhibit of The Keeper of The Plains beautifully presented in Wichita, Sedgwick County.
There is plenty of self catering vacation rental accommodation available in Kansas, like the log cabin mentioned earlier, but more traditionally made, and of course the traditional vacation homes.
