Abilene

9780738590530

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The first settler to make permanent residence in the Abilene area arrived in 1856. From the humble beginnings of a prairie dugout, Abilene grew to be the first "cowtown" of the West. Joseph G. McCoy set up his stockyards in Abilene, and millions of cattle were driven up from Texas via the Chisholm Trail and shipped out on Union Pacific railcars. Abilene exploded into one of the wildest towns in the West. Several sheriffs tried to tame it, including Wild Bill Hickok, but gentrification came in the form of bankers and businessmen. During World War II, hometown hero Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies to victory and eventually became the 34th president of the United States. Today, Abilene plays host to thousands of visitors from around the world and celebrates its rich western heritage with the Chisholm Trail Day festival.

Arkansas City

9780738552408

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Arkansas City has often been called "the gateway to the West." The name lends a lot to describing the town--a town that was founded as a border town to Indian Territory, a major trade hub to the Indian agencies in Indian Territory, and a major transportation center for those wishing to travel through the territory and farther west. Arkansas City started off as a small town with false-fronted stores but became a bustling community where the people were forward thinkers and pushed for quality and modernization in everything they brought to the city whether that was business, industry, or entertainment. Arkansas City is known for the Cherokee Strip Land Rush of September 16, 1893, interaction with the Native Americans in Indian Territory, farming, ranching, and aircraft. Although Arkansas City was a civilized community, it was a city on the fringe of a lawless and unsettled territory where outlaws lurked and Native Americans were forced to settle. People loaded their wagons or went by train to cross through Oklahoma to Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, leaving from Arkansas City. Due to Arkansas City's location, interaction with major figures and events in history, and its importance to travel farther west, Arkansas City was truly "the gateway to the West."

Arkansas City

9780738560496

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Arkansas City: People, Places, and Events is a continuation of the story of Arkansas City. The first Arkansas City told a general history of the community and its origins, the major events that occurred, and the people who built and shaped the community. Arkansas City: People, Places, and Events delves deeper into the early pioneer history of this Kansas town. It covers more of the major founders who came into Osage territory not only making a home but creating a thriving community, major entertainers and athletes who lived and played in Arkansas City, law enforcement origins and events, and organizations that helped support and shape the area.

Bonner Springs

9781467110433

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From the fabled visit of the Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado to the present-day city situated on the banks of the Kansas (Kaw) River, the history of the growth of Bonner Springs is an interesting story. Indians, fur trappers, ferry operators, merchants, and resort promoters have contributed to make Bonner Springs the city that it is today. Images of America: Bonner Springs aims to present some of this history through the photographs of Urbin Rudell and others, exhibiting the community spirit and pride the town's forward-thinking citizens have shown since its founding.

Concordia

9781467113298

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In 1869, Concordia, Kansas, was declared the county seat of what would become Cloud County. At first, the town existed only on paper as a project being pushed by James M. Hagaman and a small group of partners. Once development started, Concordia rapidly grew to become a center of commerce south of the Republican River that eventually attracted four railroad lines. It became a town of landmarks, including several famous hotels, two opera houses, Nazareth Convent, and a thriving downtown area. Characters in the story of Concordia include French Canadian immigrants, nuns, pilots, quarreling newspaper editors, German prisoners of war, and politician Frank Carlson. Readers can enjoy visiting the community's past in the pages of Images of America: Concordia.

Dodge City

9780738552255

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The founding of the American West can be studied in no better place than Dodge City and Ford County. Whether it is frontier forts, trails and cow towns, or farms and ranches, Ford County holds original examples. The best-known Wild West lawmen and gunfighters--Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Doc Holliday--gained their fame in Dodge City. Its history began with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado crossing the Arkansas River in 1541, leading to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (Dodge City is on the 100th meridian border) and the 1821 opening of the Santa Fe Trail by William Becknell. Fort Dodge, built in 1865, still stands as a reminder of the millions of people who passed through Dodge City. The Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1872, and the buffalo hunters and the Great Western Cattle Trail grew around Dodge City. The pioneer era did not end in the 1800s but continued through the 1930s dust bowl and beyond--demanding the same tough work, cooperation, and high ethics that made surviving possible in the "Great Western Desert."

El Dorado

9780738539713

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In 1915, workers struck oil at a well in Butler County, Kansas, called Stapleton #1. Over the next several years, civilian and military demand for oil transformed what had once been the farm towns of Augusta, Towanda, and El Dorado (pronounced El Dor-AY-do in local parlance) into petroleum communities. Risk-taking entrepreneurs supported drilling and exploration that brought wealth to some and loss to others. Teams of geologists, using what were still novel and experimental techniques, fanned out across the prairie to find the right places to drill. Workers found employment that was hard and dangerous but offered excitement and opportunity. Families of those workers set up new lives in company towns such as Oil Hill and Midian. Drilling, refining, and related industries supported a wide range of activities. Oil money financed the budding aviation industry in neighboring Wichita, which literally launched the resources from under the ground into the sky. While the petroleum industry changed in the years that followed, the Butler County oil boom has lived on in the companies, the people, and the very landscape of the region.

Cover image for El Dorado, isbn: 9780738539713

Emporia

9781467113182

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Established in February 1857, Emporia's founding fathers named their new business venture Emporia after a flourishing market center in Ancient Carthage. Located in the east-central part of Kansas, Emporia is known as the "Front Porch to the Flint Hills." William Allen White, publisher and editor of the Emporia Gazette, brought national attention to Emporia in the early 1900s. Known for his fiery political essays, White became an advisor to many US presidents, five of whom visited his home, Red Rocks. Emporia is home to Emporia State University, the state's first normal school, founded in 1863. Located on the university campus are the National Teachers Hall of Fame and the Memorial to Fallen Educators, honoring those who lost their lives teaching and working in America's schools. Honoring fallen heroes is a long-standing tradition in Emporia, as it is also the founding city of Veterans Day.

Flint Hills

9780738583136

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The Kansas Flint Hills stretch across a dozen counties in the eastern half of the Sunflower State. The region boasts rolling hills covered in native grasses, including the tallgrass varieties unique to the area. Dubbed the "Great American Desert" by pioneers facing the prairie's vastness, the rich grassland became home to settlers pursuing ranching and farming enterprises. Images of America: Flint Hills presents over 200 historic images from a half-dozen counties in the region. Included are vintage photographs from the Native Stone Scenic Byway and the Flint Hills Scenic Byway that transverse the district. Also included are views of Council Grove, the last place that travelers could purchase supplies before leaving on the Santa Fe Trail. The Davis Ranch, which encompassed all of what is now the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, is seen in historic images never published before. The volume concludes with photographs of Flint Hills cowboys at work and at play.

Hays

9780738560243

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Hays was founded in 1867 as the Union Pacific Railroad moved west. Its early history includes Wild West antics with famous people like Wild Bill Hickok, but soon Hays became a center for agriculture, commerce, and education. By 1930, the population of Hays was 5,000, and it grew to 7,000 by the end of the decade. Although the 1930s were a time of economic depression, of agricultural drought and dust storms, these photographs of Hays show a much different story. They are positive, even energetic, showing the upside to a depressed decade. Photographer R. E. Ekey began his studio in 1928 and retired in 1955. His photographs of Hays portray the special events as well as the routine of everyday life. They show a variety and richness that exemplify the character of Hays, both then and now.

Independence

9781467112611

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Independence, Kansas, is the perfect picture of Americana. Where else can one find a small town that holds an annual theatre festival named in honor of one of its own natives, William Inge, or celebrates the early settlers in the Little House on the Prairie novels? Where can one find the site of the first-ever night game in organized baseball or the first team of one of baseball's most prolific hitters, Mickey Mantle? What other town in America can claim achievers like safari traveler Martin Johnson, oil magnate Harry Sinclair, presidential candidate Alf Landon, and even an astronaut chimp named Miss Abel? Lastly, where else can one find a town that holds a weeklong festival with the whimsical name Neewollah ("Halloween" spelled backward)?

Kansas City, Kansas

9780738593999

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Over the past 150 years, many of the consumer goods sold and used across the country were either manufactured in Kansas City, Kansas, or passed through this industrial center. From the westbound trails of pioneer times until today, Kansas has been the crossroads of the nation, and the city has benefitted from its geographic centrality in the country. Household names with ties to the city include Google; Cerner Corporation; Procter & Gamble; General Motors; Colgate-Palmolive; the Santa Fe, Rock Island & Union Pacific Railroad lines; Phillips Petroleum; Armour and Company; Owens Corning; Massey Ferguson; General Electric; Sunshine Biscuits; Lee (apparel); Sealy (mattresses); and United Telecom (which morphed into Sprint Nextel). Images of America: Kansas City, Kansas aims to present some of that historic past, much of which has long been demolished, so that modern readers may see the complete, "full service" city as it evolved between 1804 and 2012.

Lansing

9780738561929

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Founded by Civil War veteran William Lansing Taylor, Lansing is home to a population quickly approaching 11,000 residents. It is also home to the Lansing Correctional Facility (formerly the Kansas State Penitentiary), the oldest prison in Kansas. Designed by Erasmus Carr, architect of the Kansas State Capitol, the building has stood watch over the area for more than 140 years. As one will find, Lansing and the prison have grown together and mutually benefitted each other. Lansing is also home to Mount Muncie Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the state. It is the resting place of several famous people, including Fred Harvey. The photographs in this book are glimpses into time of a small village with one-room schools to a bustling community with one of the busiest north-south highways in Kansas.

Lawrence

9781467114554

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With its skyline dominated by the campus of the University of Kansas, the history of Lawrence cannot be divorced from the history of the academy, its influence, and impact. The history of any town, however, is much more than the story of one institution or issue. Lawrence is also a river town, located in an agriculturally rich valley, and Massachusetts Street, its main commercial street, harkens back to its mid-19th century New England origins and influences. Lawrence is also a place of diversity and change, a community where space is contested and disparate opinions make for vital public discourse.

Lawrence

9780738577999

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Stunned and grieving survivors stared into their burned-out town on the western frontier in the midst of the Civil War. William C. Quantrill's Missouri guerillas raided Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, and killed 180 men and boys. Women lost husbands, children lost fathers, and fathers lost sons. Every one of the 2,500 residents lost either a loved one, a neighbor, or acquaintance. A few left town, but most survivors were determined to remain and remember; not to "wink out." Newcomers brought industry and innovation. The University of Kansas, 1866, and Haskell Institute, 1884 (now Haskell Indian Nations University), grew into major institutions.

Liberal and Seward County

9780738582795

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From towns like Liberal and Beer City to Kismet and Arkalon, Seward County has been the home of a tough, yet imaginative, people. Seymour Rogers, who homesteaded in the southern portion of the county, hand-dug a well and provided travelers with free water. Before long, the "liberal well" became the town of Liberal. The late 1880s saw settlers making their way to southwest Kansas to claim their 160 acres and hopefully fulfill their dreams. Farmers, ranchers, newspaper editors, shopkeepers, and a few ne'er-do-wells populated Seward County. Liberal became the county seat after a battle between what are now the ghost towns of Fargo Springs and Springfield. Horrific dust storms, grinding depressions, blizzards, and droughts tested the pioneers. Those that stayed were eventually rewarded by returning rains, the discovery of oil and gas, and the construction of a B-24 Army Air Base. With a spirit borne of those sturdy pioneers, the people of Liberal and Seward County have come a long way.

Marshall County

9781467113014

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The Oregon-California Trail carried more than 100,000 settlers west over the prairies of the future state of Kansas in the mid-1800s. Pioneers and Pony Express riders crossed the Big Blue River at Independence Crossing or at Frank Marshall's ferry near present-day Marysville. In 1846, members of the Donner Party discovered and named Alcove Spring, now one of 20 county sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Kansas Territorial Legislature established Marshall County in 1855. After the Civil War, rich soil and abundant water attracted farmers, and its location attracted railroads and industry. Today, the same occupations still sustain the 16 towns and villages. As the "Gateway to the Flint Hills," the county's rolling hills are dotted with picturesque prairie, woods, limestone outcrops, rivers, and creeks. Even though the county is a crossroads for modern highways US 36 and US 77, pioneer wagon ruts are still visible in Marshall County.

Morris County

9781467111065

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The establishment of the Santa Fe Trail, along with the Kaw Indian reservation and the influx of white settlers answering the unyielding call of Manifest Destiny, set the scene for Morris County and its part in the epic story of the American West and Bleeding Kansas. Millions of dollars in goods and hundreds of thousands of men passed through Morris County during that era, and inevitably it became the stomping ground of many notable historic figures, both famous and infamous. "Bloody" Bill Anderson, Dick Yeager, Jack McDowell, Jesse Chisholm, and George Armstrong Custer are just a few of the names that have made Morris County legendary. Since Morris County has been tamed, it has been known as prime cattle country and farmland and is home to the Council Grove Federal Reservoir, which brings in thousands of waterskiers, anglers, boaters, and campers every year.

Mulvane

9780738598710

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Mulvane sits on the Sedgwick/Sumner County line, adjacent to the Arkansas River, and is roughly 10 miles south of Wichita. It was founded in 1879 by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway on the rail line that comes south from Wichita and evolved as a railroad town and agricultural community. It has survived floods, droughts, tornadoes, and fires and is now the home of over 6,000 residents. Mulvane is a progressive city filled with people who have a keen eye on the future while celebrating their past. Thousands of residents and visitors come to town during the third weekend of August for the annual Old Settlers Days celebration, which has taken place each year since 1873; the event was actually established before the town was incorporated. Images of America: Mulvane offers a glimpse of the people and events of the past that helped shape the present of "The City of the Valley."

Newton

9780738598758

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Newton, Kansas, was established by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad as a new railhead for the Chisholm Cattle Trail in 1871. After two years as the wildest cow town in the West, Newton became a center for Mennonite migration and wheat production in east central Kansas, with the railroad moving it all. In addition to eastern European immigrants and hard winter wheat seed, the rails brought even more people from differing backgrounds, all of whom helped the town grow and change. Images of America: Newton shows those people and the places where they worked, worshipped, and played and includes many photographs from residents' family albums in addition to images from public archives. Meet the residents of this "Crossroads of Kansas" city, from the locally famous to the folks next door, in the pages of Newton.

Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

9781626198357

$23.99

Bank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history.

Old Cowtown Museum

9781467117432

$24.99

Old Cowtown Museum originally started as a shrine to the pioneers and founders of Wichita. It later reinvented itself according to Hollywood's version of the Old West. After the peak of Western films, the museum once again updated its theme to reflect Wichita's agricultural history. In recent years, Old Cowtown Museum has become a nationally recognized and accredited living history museum. A product of 1950s Old West nostalgia, it has become one of the most beloved of all of Wichita's museums and institutions. Inside this book is the story of how Old Cowtown Museum became the regional and cultural attraction it is today, along with images of the museum throughout its 66-year history, including people, events, and stories, many of which have never been published before.

Osborne County

9780738501642

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With the American frontier moving quickly westward, Osborne County, nestled in the Blue Hills of north-central Kansas, began its official life in 1867. Though the county was not organized until four years later, settlers of various backgrounds sought homesteads there and quickly filled the untamed land. By 1881, the county boasted an agrarian population of 12,000. From the hunting grounds of early Native American inhabitants to the agricultural roots set down by settlers after Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, from the coming of the railroad to the laying of state and federal highways, the story of Osborne County is both vital and enduring. Covering 900 square miles and the county's formative years (1876-1941), Osborne County, Kansas beautifully captures the spirit of a region and its people, documenting old street scenes, businesses, homes, and residents as they looked, played, prayed, learned, and worked, both in the city and on the farm during those crucial years.

Ottawa

9781467112697

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Ottawa was founded in 1864. Located in the Marais des Cygnes River Valley, the area's rich soil and lush grass made it well suited for growing crops and pasturing livestock. The community's first cultural center was Ottawa University, which was chartered in 1865 and built on land exchanged by the Ottawa Indians for the promise of an education for their children. Two railroads later arrived, the Lawrence, Leavenworth & Galveston in 1868 and the Missouri Pacific in 1880, spurring industrial development. Images of America: Ottawa highlights early settlers, prominent industries, noteworthy institutions, and devastating natural disasters. Using vintage photographs, this history features local memories and milestones, capturing everything from the famous Ottawa Chautauqua Assemblies, held annually from 1883 to 1914 in Forest Park, to the emerging distribution centers that have shaped the area today.

Overland Park

9780738590646

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In 1906, entrepreneur and New York railroad builder William B. Strang Jr. started a unique suburban housing development seven miles southwest of Kansas City that he named Overland Park. He chose farmland on a high ridge where the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails once crossed and built an interurban railroad for the use of future commuters and real estate customers. Advertised enticements, such as a lake with camping facilities and weekly entertainments, lured thousands of riders on his Strang Line to the new community. In 1909, he arranged for the first area aeroplane flight that astonished and charmed the metropolitan populace. He built the first private airfield in the Midwest, where he held spectacular air shows and extravaganzas like Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Overland Park has since grown to be the second largest city in Kansas. The highly rated school system has graduated many notable and recognizable figures, such as Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, and former US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Richard Myers.

Parsons

9780738561738

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Parsons, located in southeast Kansas, owes its existence to the railroad. When the first Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad locomotive reached the southern border of Kansas in June 1870, the railroad won two prizes, the coveted right to build across Oklahoma Indian Territory and the right to acquire extensive land grants in the territory. The fall of the same year, railroad executives selected a site for a major junction and terminal. The Parsons Town Company sold its first lots in 1871 at Parsons Junction, named for railroad president Judge Levi Parsons. Because of the town's phenomenal growth, it soon earned the title of "Infant Wonder of the West." The photographs contained in this book, including some of the earliest known of Parsons, serve as testimony to the energies and ingenuity of early settlers. These images also depict the development of Parsons-on-the-Prairie and its transformation from frontier town to the "Queen City of the Great Southwest."

Pittsburg

9780738561165

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Pittsburg was purposely located in the center of the Cherokee-Crawford coal field of southeastern Kansas in 1876. The city's founders intended for the new mining camp to serve as a convenient shipping point for the tons of bituminous coal that would be extracted from the region. Little did the founders anticipate how quickly Pittsburg would become the dominant city in the rapidly industrialized southeastern corner of Kansas and one of the most populous cities in the state. Immigrants from over 50 ethnic groups came to Pittsburg to provide the necessary labor for the deep-shaft coal mines, the railroads, and many other industries. Pittsburg State University, established in 1903 as a manual training school, is one of the most significant features of modern-day Pittsburg and is widely recognized for excellence in academics and athletics.

Post Rock Country

9781467112482

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Rush County, at the south end of Post Rock Country, was organized on December 5, 1874, and named in honor of Capt. Alexander Rush, Company H, of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry. The first settlers arrived in 1869 and established homesteads along Walnut Creek near the Fort Hays-Fort Dodge Trail. With few trees on the vast, dry prairie, settlers searched for alternative building materials. Post Rock, a unique limestone bed that sat within inches of the surface, was so well used and became such a curiosity that it gave rise to the Post Rock Museum in 1963.

Salina

9780738561813

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Early in 1858, three men walked across the eastern half of Kansas Territory intent on starting a town. Although the volatile conflict between Free State and proslavery forces still simmered, the bloodshed had abated, and Free State factions had gained the upper hand. People turned their interests to more peaceful pursuits, including town building. Armed with a compass and stovepipe hat instead of a tripod, the three young Scotsmen selected and surveyed a town site along the Smoky Hill River, near the confluence of the Saline River in north-central Kansas. The tiny settlement soon became a way-stop for westbound travelers and a hub of activity for hunters, soldiers, land seekers, and surveyors. Now 150 years later, Salina (pronounced with a long i) still thrives as a center for commercial, cultural, civic, and social activity. Voted an All-America City in 1989, Salina is home to nearly 50,000 people who enjoy midwestern living in the heart of America.

Salina's Historic Downtown

9781467110037

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Salina got its name from the Saline River that flows north of town. Its founders were a close-knit group of Scotsmen related by blood or marriage; most came to America from southwestern Scotland between 1839 and 1854 and settled in Randolph County, Illinois. Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune sent correspondent William A. Phillips from Randolph County to Lawrence, Kansas, to cover the turmoil caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The residents of Kansas were to choose whether the territory would come into the Union as a slaveholding or free-soil state. To affect that outcome, both Southerners and Northern abolitionists sent colonies of settlers to Kansas Territory. Out of this conflict was born the Salina Town Company. William A. Philips, his brother David, his sister Christina, and his brothers-in-law Alexander C. Spilman and Alexander M. Campbell, along with close friend James Muir, preempted a 320-acre town site in north central Kansas in 1858. From humble beginnings grew the largest commercial center in the area: Salina.

Saline County

9781467111836

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Early Saline County was a land rich in Native American history. Only a few settlers migrated to the area prior to the railroad development that started in 1867. Milling and grains, livestock, and even gypsum mining all influenced the growth of Saline County. Salina became a prominent city, whereas Hedville and other towns were altered, almost lost, as the railroads continued to build and change their depots, creating boom and bust economies in the county. Tornados, fires, droughts, and floods challenged the hardy souls who called this area home. Salina and the towns that have survived the booms and busts have a robust history.

Topeka

9780738584348

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The city of Topeka was founded on December 5, 1854, by nine men who made camp by the Kansas River at what is today the intersection of First and Kansas Avenues. During Kansas's territorial days, Topeka played a leading role in the Free State movement. In 1858, Topeka was voted the Shawnee County seat, and in 1859 secured the position of state capital at the final constitutional convention, which took effect when Kansas achieved statehood in 1861. In the century and a half that followed, Topeka grew as America grew, developing a rich history. Now home to 125,000 citizens, Topeka has become one of the leading metropolitan cities in the Midwest. Images of America: Topeka celebrates the city's history in photographs, drawing on the vast photographic collection of the Kansas State Historical Society as well as other private and public collections.

Wabaunsee County

9780738560779

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In 2009, Wabaunsee County will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Although Wabaunsee County was first created in 1855 by the Kansas territorial legislature as Richardson County, it had no county government and was attached to neighboring Shawnee County in legal jurisdiction. In 1859, the legislature renamed the county Wabaunsee, after the Potawatomi Indian chief, and in March of that year, the first election for county officers was held. The county lies in the heart of the Kansas Flint Hills, and it boasts some of the most beautiful landscapes in the state. While located only 30 miles from the state capital in Topeka, it retains its rural atmosphere, even today. The largest of its seven incorporated towns has less than 1,000 residents. The earliest settlers lived among large populations of Native Americans. During the Civil War, the Underground Railroad operated actively in the county. In 1880, the first railroad was built in the county, and the towns along its line boomed. When a second line was introduced in 1887, the county saw its greatest growth. Today residents enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the rugged Flint Hills, lush pastures, and fertile bottomland sustaining the local economy as it has for a century and a half. A large section of highway across the county has been designated the Kansas Native Stone Scenic Byway, and tourism has begun to play an increasingly larger role in the county's economy.

Wichita

9780738598550

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Situated in the heart of the Great Plains, Wichita has been a city of energy and change. The Great Depression and World War II brought both challenges and opportunities. During the postwar years, commercial and business activities downtown thrived, while shopping malls and drive-ins appeared in new suburbs. Meanwhile, African Americans, countercultural figures, and other groups struggled to reshape local affairs. Urban renewal transformed whole sections of the city, while redevelopment brought new life into older structures. Events such as Riverfest and a host of museums have improved the quality of life. A strong entrepreneurial tradition has remained, and populations from Asia and Latin America have brought new perspectives. Aviation has remained the economy's heart, although health care, higher education, and other ventures have made their mark as well. Through it all, the rhythms of everyday life have continued, creating a vibrant, complex community facing the dawn of the 21st century.

Wichita

9780738523170

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Wichita, Kansas, has grown significantly since the mid-19th century, when a group of pioneering entrepreneurs arrived to build on the trading and hunting activities of the Osage and Wichita peoples. Those early days of commerce gave way to Coleman, Cessna, and other companies whose influence helped shape the city's development. From the Texas cowboys who ran the cattle drives to Lebanese merchants, the population of the city has been as diverse and as dynamic as its companies. This visual history of early Wichita showcases the colorful landmarks, people, and businesses that built the bustling city on the Arkansas River.