Kansas! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atchison

Founded in 1854, Atchison is on the Missouri River in the northeast part of the state. It had a 2013 population of approximately 11,000. In 1863, a land grant was transferred to the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railroad. Construction on the line began in Topeka rather than Atchison in 1868, being delayed because of the Civil War. It eventually comprised some 12,000 miles of rail line from Chicago to Los Angeles and Houston to San Francisco, by either building the track or by taking over smaller lines that had. It never did reach Santa Fe due to the difficulty of the terrain. In September 1995, the AT&SF was merged into Burlington Northern Inc. and became BNSF Railway.

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison in July 1897. Another native was Jesse Stone (aka Chuck Calhoun). He was the composer of, among other hits, "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", and the person thought to have done the most to develop the basic rock and roll sound. Although Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics to "The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" in 1944, the song was sung by Judy Garland in "The Harvey Girls" and won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song for 1946.

Answer: Jayhawker State

The Jayhawkers was an organization in Kansas, established for defense from the various Missouri raiders who were trying to ensure that Kansas chose to be a "slave" state rather than "free". The term "Jayhawkers" was not unique to Kansas but had been used at least once before by a group of people heading for the California gold fields. One of the better known Jayhawkers was a fellow named Marshall Cleveland (aka Charles Metz). Since most people wanted Kansas to be a free state, the folks in Atchison, where he made his headquarters, were pleased to have him take up residence.

He no doubt liked it better than one of his prior homes, the Missouri State Penitentiary. While living in Atchison, "Capt." Metz stole hundreds of horses from Missouri, which he sold in Kansas.

He also robbed at least two banks. He robbed anyone he felt might sympathize with the South, and even threatened some of Atchison's leading citizens with murder. He was shot sometime in 1862.

Answer: American bison

The American bison, sometimes called the American buffalo, roamed the plains in great herds. They were almost exterminated by the white "buffalo hunters" on the orders of Gen. Philip Sheridan, in an effort to get the last of the free Indians to remove themselves to the reservations. Because the Indians had, since time immemorial, hunted the bison and used virtually all of their parts for their survival, the thinking was that if the Indians no longer had bison to hunt they would have to surrender themselves to the reservation or starve.

The last feral bison killed in Kansas was at Point of Rocks. Today, in Kansas, there are again a number of herds of bison, both public and private.

Answer: Cherry pie with ice cream

Although the reason for this old law seems to be lost in the depths of time, it could be because some cherry pie bakers (like my grandmother) would put a dollop of alcohol in the filling, and no alcohol was allowed to be consumed in Kansas on Sunday.

Answer: 5 years

The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed people to settle on 160 acres of surveyed government land. They were required to build a house and grow crops. After five years, if the original settler was on the land, the land was deeded to him. In many places in Kansas that meant a sod house and a windmill, without which there would be no water for crops.

Many of the original homesteaders could not complete the contract due to inclement weather, lack of water, hordes of grasshoppers, illness and a multitude of other reasons, including disillusionment. Those that did worked very hard and long to survive and prosper. One day before they died they would eventually be able to replace the little sod house with a frame or brick house.

Answer: Arkansas City

There were approximately 115,000 settlers that raced over the Kansas border to Oklahoma Territory to claim their share of over six million acres of Cherokee land. This was the largest land run ever in the United States. The Cherokees were paid over $8.5 million dollars. There is a museum dedicated to that event in Enid, Oklahoma.

Answer: barbed wire

Although it began in 1964 as a part of the Post Rock Museum, the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum's present home was constructed in 1990, with an addition in 2004. With the completion of the additional construction, the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum began housing the collection of the Antique Barbed Wire Society, which had relocated from Dodge City, Kansas.

The building also has a research library, community room and storage facility. The research library has the largest collection of fencing related materials in the world.

The museum displays over 2,000 varieties of barbed wire, along with the many different tools used in building the fences. Visitors come from all over the US and a few come from abroad.

Answer: chalk

In 1998 Cobra Rock toppled, and in 2001 Castle Rock, in the same formation, lost its tallest spire. These monoliths are part of the Smokey Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk. They were carved by erosion. The chalk was deposited there some eighty million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period when the area was covered by an inland sea. Both Gove and Lloyd counties are world famous for the fossils, both large and small, that have been discovered in the chalk.

Answer: Wichita

The first Pizza Hut was founded in June 1958 by brothers Frank and Dan Carney, along with partner John Bender, with $600 they borrowed from their mother. In a rented building in downtown Wichita, which bears no resemblance to modern Pizza Huts, they opened up, giving away pizzas on opening night.

A year later it was incorporated and its first franchise was opened in Topeka. In 2013, the oldest continuously operating property was in Manhattan, Kansas. The chain is owned by Yum! Brands, Inc. and there are more than 6,000 Pizza Huts in the US, with over 5,100 in overseas countries and territories. I'm presuming that the brothers repaid their mother for her loan.

Answer: Carry A. Nation

Carry Amelia Moore Nation was a woman who was almost six feet tall, weighing about 180 pounds, who claimed to have a divine order to stop the drinking of alcohol by taking a hatchet to establishments that served it. These were absolute acts of vandalism. Although all of her life she used the first name "Carrie", when she began her feud against alcohol she changed it to "Carry" and had the slogan "Carry A. Nation" registered as a trademark in Kansas. She may have come to detest the usage of alcohol because her first husband died of alcoholism less than two years after they were married, although she had left him after about one year, taking their infant daughter with her.

Years later she moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she collapsed during a speech. She was taken to a hospital and sanitarium in Leavenworth, Kansas, where she died in 1911. Although both her mother and her daughter were confined to mental institutions when she was younger, there are no surviving medical records that indicate she, too, was afflicted with a mental illness.

Her home in Medicine Lodge was bought by the WTCU in 1950, and in 1976 it was declared a US National Historic Landmark. The WTCU had also erected a gravestone for her in Belton, Missouri some years after her death.