Topics in Kansas History: Environment

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. read more

Find resources on Environment:

• "Bison, the Amazing Animal," Kansas Preservation, March/April 2002
• "Bison, the Indomitable Icon," Kansas Preservation, May/June 2002
• Blizzard of 1886
• Dust Bowl Days
• "Earth, Wind, and Fire: Kansas Archeology," Kansas Heritage, Spring 1997
• Grasshopper Invasion of 1874
• Grasshopper Plague of 1874
• "Hedgerow Heritage: Osage Orange as Part of the Built Environment," Kansas Preservation, May/June 2004
• Kansas National Forest

Letters, documents, objects, and photographs

• Agnes T. Frog protest costume
• Ballot box that survived tornado
• Clock from 1903 flood
• Drouthy Kansas painting by Henry Worrall
• Dust Storm print by Herschel Logan
• Gate to close I-70 during blizzards
• One-way plow
• Radiation meters, 1950s
• "Rain Wizard" rainmaker poster
• Street signs from Greensburg tornado
• Tornado photographs
• Wolf Creek Generating Station logo by Blackbear Bosin

Bibliographies, finding aids, and guides to the collections

Museum Store

• Books on Natural Kansas

Kansas Heritage, our popular history magazine

• "Earth, Wind, and Fire: Kansas Archeology," Spring 1997
• "In Search of Secrets in the Stone: Rock Art of Kansas," Summer 1998
• "'It Was a Dark and Stormy Night': A Photo Essay," Autumn 1998
• "All Creatures Great and Small," Summer 1999
• "The Last Resort," Summer 2002

Kansas History, our scholarly journal

• "Blowin' in the Wind: Windmill Manufacturing and Distribution in Kansas," Spring 1996
• "Creating a 'Sea of Galilee': The Rescue of Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, 1927-1930." Spring 2001
• "Gaining Control of the Environment: The Morton County Land Utilization Project in the Kansas Dust Bowl," Summer 1996
• "'A Grave-Yard of Hopes': Irrigation and Boosterism in Southwest Kansas, 1880-1890," Spring 1996
• "On the Rim of the Desert's Heart: Kansas and Water," Spring 1996
• "'One of the Nastiest Rivers That I Know Of': Municipal and Rural Sanitation in Nineteenth-Century Kansas," Spring 1996
• "Review Essay Series: The Art of Water and the Art of Living," Spring 2002
• "A Story of Three Families," Summer 1996
• "Water in Willow Springs Township," Spring 1996
• "The Waterscape and the Law: Adopting Prior Appropriation in Kansas," Spring 1996

Kansas Kaleidoscope, our children's magazine

• "The Dirty Thirties!" March 1999
• "I Love Kansas, Weather or Not," April/May 2003
• "Kansas Geography," April 1999
• "Kansas Underwater," February/March 2001
• "Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam: The Story of Life on the Kansas Prairie," April/May 2001
• "Kidmapped! August/September 2001
• "Changing Landscapes," February/March 2003

• Dust Bowl in Kansas
• Kansas Tornado

Teaching Materials

• Classroom Materials: Environment
• Field Trips: Environment