Topics in Kansas History: Environment

Essay

The Kansas landscape is as varied as the more than 2.5 million people who live here. The 14th largest state in the country, Kansas has a huge surface area - a total of more than 50 million acres. The state's 11 different regions are: Ozark Plateau, Cherokee Lowlands, Osage Cuesta, Glaciated Region, Flint Hills, Smoky Hill, High Plains, Arkansas River Lowlands, Red Hills, and the Wellington-McPherson Lowlands. Kansas harbors one of the country's most precious natural resources - native prairie.

The Flint Hills region is one of the few remaining locations in the United States where great stretches of unplowed grassland remain. The climate in Kansas varies greatly from region to region. If you live in southeast Kansas, where the elevation is the lowest in the state, you might receive 40 inches of rain each year. In northwest Kansas you might receive less than 20 inches. The state's large streams empty into either the Arkansas River or the Kansas River. Kansas is shaped like a rectangle with a "bite" out of the upper right corner where the Missouri River forms the border of the state.

Forces of Nature

Many Kansans enjoy the state's distinct change of seasons and what was often described as a healthy climate. In 1869, a Clay County woman wrote: "The climate here is very healthy, particularly for consumptives, more so than Florida or Minnesota, for we have that peculiar dryness of the atmosphere without the sultriness of the one or the extreme cold of the other."

In the mid-1880s, a Kansas writer claimed that "God never favored man with a finer land, richer plains, more fertile valleys, clearer skies, [or] a more genial climate." Others insisted that increased settlement had favorably modified the climate, and that tornadic storms were less common and "we now have rain without thunder and lightning."

Despite this optimism, Kansas has not shaken its well-deserved reputation for extremes in climate and rapid (often violent) changes in the weather. Most Kansans are familiar with the expression, "if you don't like the weather, wait 'till tomorrow." Often, this is not an overstatement.

Although the most famous drought and subsequent dust storms occurred during the 1930s, drought and dust have always been conditions with which Kansans have had to cope. This has been the exception rather than the rule in the history of Kansas weather patterns, but a lack of moisture and hot, dry winds are a common climatic feature, especially in the western half of the state.

"We have had fearful winds this spring. One day it raised our roof several inches, & just rolled up the sod on it." Flora Heston, Clark County, 1886

The reverse of these exceptionally dry conditions has also caused pain and suffering at different times during the state's history. Heavy rains throughout the "Great American Desert" precipitated flooding which resulted in the loss of life and the destruction of much property.

Some of the worst flooding in the state's history occurred during the late spring of 1903 when rivers and streams throughout the Kansas River valley raged over their banks. Many towns sustained considerable damage, but the greatest losses were suffered at Topeka and Kansas City. Fifty-seven people died, 38 in Topeka alone, and thousands were left homeless.

Only one of seven railroad bridges in the Kansas City area withstood the destructive force of the 1903 flood waters.

Floods followed the devastating Kansas River valley flooding of 1903 the next year on the tributaries of the Arkansas River. Also hard hit was Ottawa on the Marais des Cygnes River. In addition to Ottawa, the towns of Emporia and Winfield suffered especially heavy damage.

Although Kansas may not actually deserve its reputation as the "cyclone state," tornadic conditions have been a frequent occurrence with which Kansans have had to cope. In 1905, one McPherson County man came up with a rather unique idea for the protection of his family. According to the Marquette Tribune, this man "made a 'fraid hole' near his house. He has made a chute from his upstairs window down to the cave door. A rope is attached to the window and the door. When he raises the window the cave door is pulled open. All he and his wife have to do when they think a twister is coming is to raise the window, jump into the chute, land in the cave and pull the door after them and they are safe. It is planned by several of our older wags to go out to this man's place some stormy night, aid nature in making an uproar, and witness a performance!"

The little town of Towanda was virtually destroyed by a tornado that hit Barber, Butler, Sumner, and Rice counties. Fifteen people were killed and property damage was heavy throughout the area. Two months later, twelve people died in another storm that hit Wellington in Sumner County.

A tornado that inflicted damage on the town of Sabetha was responsible for the deaths of 15 people. Damage was heavy throughout the county and hundreds were left homeless.

Hailstorms are another weather phenomenon of the Great Plains, which have had devastating consequences for the region's inhabitants. Hail frequently accompanies the thunderstorms of the late spring and early summer, arriving at a time when crops are very vulnerable. The hail that fell on Topeka on June 24, 1897, injured 25 people and caused extensive property damage.

On occasion winter storms have also been a serious problem. Blizzards, especially in western Kansas can and have had fatal results for people and animals. As historian Walter Prescott Webb once explained, "The blizzard is the grizzly of the Plains."

According to most accounts, the granddaddy of all these "grizzlies" struck during January of 1886. Hundreds of thousands of cattle and other wildlife, and nearly 100 people died in a storm that paralyzed much of the state.

Other "forces of nature" which have affected Kansans over the years are not directly linked to the climate. Insect invasions, most notably the "hopper plagues," and fires, in particular those on the prairie, defeated many hard-working Kansas farmers and placed others in desperate situations.

Grasshoppers plagued Kansas and other Plains states on many occasions. By most accounts, however, the worst invasion came in the summer and fall of 1874. Not only were the "hoppers" more numerous and their path of destruction more widespread, their arrival came on the heals of a serious drought.

One well-known Kansas journalist and author described their arrival as follows: "As a spectacle the approach of the winged destroyers was sufficiently terrifying. They came in great clouds darkening the sky, and settled on trees and growing crops, devouring leaf and branch. The destruction of vegetation was complete all through the summer and fall." -- Noble L. Prentis, A History of Kansas (1909).

Prairie fires are a natural part of the plains environment, but they became a threat to life and property as the number of farms increased. Like all fires, many different things cause them. But lightning often started this "fiend of the prairie", which was a dangerous climatic feature in and of itself.

According to the Jewell City Weekly Clarion, August 30, 1870: "Quite a number of horses and cattle have been killed during the past two months by lightning, and generally in fields enclosed with wire."

Fires, of course, were also a problem for the residents of the state's many young towns.

Landscape

"The country here is just beautiful. . . . Yesterday was right cool and very windy, but this morning the sun shines warm & it is still. I think we surely have a good farm. . . . I am so glad we came west, for this country is bound to make its mark."-- Flora Heston, Clark County, April 1885

Although Kansas is often portrayed as flat and monotonous, a true picture of the state would reveal a wide variety of terrain. From the Ozark Plateau of the southeastern corner to the High Plains of the west, the state's simple beauty and diversity was recognized by the earliest travelers and settlers who recorded their impressions of the region. Kansas, it is true, has no spectacular mountains and does lack for a great deal of native timber, but it was this very "treelessness" and relative flatness that attracted a good many of the state's early farmer and pioneers.

In 1870, a Crawford County settler observed: "Of timber we have but little, and lumber is consequently higher here than in the East. Yet it costs not nearly so much to fence a farm here as it does to clear a timbered country." The previous year a Clay County woman had written that "There is not a foot of our 80 acres where a plow cannot run unobstructed, yet within a short distance is a plenty of stone for building purposes. We have not a tree or shrub, or any water upon our place; but we hope that perseverance and a few years will remedy the one fault, and wells and cisterns must make up for the other."

Fires, of course, were also a problem for the residents of the state's many young towns.

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