Topics in Kansas History: Environment

Landscape

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/pioneers. read more

Find resources on landscape.

• "Hedgerow Heritage: Osage Orange as Part of the Built Environment," Kansas Preservation, May/June 2004

Letters, documents, objects, and photographs

Bibliographies, finding aids, and guides to the collections

Kansas Kaleidoscope, our children's magazine

• "Changing Landscapes," February/March 2003
• "The Dirty Thirties!" March 1999
• "Kansas Geography," April 1999
• "Kansas Underwater," February/March 2002
• "Kidmapped!" August/September 2001
• "Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam: The Story of Life on the Kansas Prairie," April/May 2001

Find other Environment topics.