Also see Kansas Humor, Notable Kansans, Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.



Page Toppers


Quotes


Kansas Symbols


Facts About Kansas


Page Ideas


Home on the Range

(words by Brewster Higley, music by Daniel Kelley)

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Chorus:
Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours
(Repeat Chorus)

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free
The breezes so balmy and light
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright
(Repeat Chorus)

Oh, I love those wild flow'rs in this dear land of ours
The curlew, I love to hear scream
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountaintops green
(Repeat Chorus)


Kansas Pioneers

(Velma West)

"When we came to Kansas," grandfather said,
"I built us a cabin and chinked it tight,
There was oak and hickory for our fires,
And a good, cold spring near the cabin site."

"I shot plenty of deer," he reminisced,
"And prairie chickens were thick as hops;
Fish in the crick and squirrels in the woods,
So we didn't depend alone on crops."
She sighed, "We were miles and miles from shops."

"I broke the sod for some corn and wheat
But grasshoppers plagued and dry years came;
Some folks packed up and they went back East,"
Said he, "but we stayed and proved out claim."
Said she, "All alone when my first child came."


Why I Love Kansas

(Ann Lindholm)

When it's Christmas time in Kansas,
And the gentle breezes blow,
About seventy miles an hour
And it's fifty-two below.

You can tell you're in Kansas,
'Cause the snow's up to your butt,
And you take a breath of Christmas air
And your nose holes both freeze shut.

The weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around;
I could NEVER leave Kansas now,
My feet are frozen to the ground.

from Kansas City

(Trini Lopez)

I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come.
They got some crazy little women there
And I'm gonna get me one.

I'm gonna be standing on the corner,
Twelfth Street and Vine;
With my Kansas City baby and my bottle
Of Kansas City wine.

Well, I might take a train,
might take a plane,
But if I have to walk,
I'm gonna fly there just the same.
Yeaaaah, Kansas City here I come.
They got some crazy little women there
And I'm gonna get me one.


Sunrise in Kansas

(Rea Williams)

There's enthralling beauty in a waking world
As again the sun's reborn
Over a dew-drenched sparkling land
Of a lovely Kansas morn.

Birds with cheerful song awing
Dispel the gloom of night
Lifting my spirit to realms of peace
In ethereal glowing light.

No other time can quite compare
With the morning hush that stills
Tumultuous sounds of another night
Along those Kansas hills.


Sunset in Kansas

(Rea Williams)

At eventide of a beautiful day
For a moment before I rest,
I pause to gaze in breathless awe
At the sunset in the west.

Majestic cedars with shimmering boughs
Like lofty cathedral spires
Proclaim the beauty of the Master's brush
While another day expires.

I'm not imbued with proper words
To describe His glowing canvas
As He paints another celestial scene
In the western skies of Kansas.


The Kansas Emigrants

(John Greenleaf Whittier)

WE cross the prairie as of old
The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free!

We go to rear a wall of men
On Freedom's southern line,
And plant beside the cotton-tree
The rugged Northern pine!

We're flowing from our native hills
As our free rivers flow;
The blessing of our Mother-land
Is on us as we go.

We go to plant her common schools
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wild
The music of her bells.

Upbearing, like the Ark of old,
The Bible in our van,
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man.

No pause, nor rest, save where the streams
That feed the Kansas run,
Save where our Pilgrim gonfalon
Shall flout the setting sun!

We'll tread the prairie as of old
Our fathers sailed the sea,
And make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free!


Kansas

(Vachel Lindsay)

Oh, I have walked in Kansas
Through many a harvest field,
And piled the sheaves of glory there
And down the wild rows reeled:

Each sheaf a little yellow sun,
A heap of hot-rayed gold;
Each binder like Creation's hand
To mold suns, as of old.

Straight overhead the orb of noon
Beat down with brimstone breath:
The desert wind from south and west
Was blistering flame and death.

Yet it was gay in Kansas,
A-fighting that strong sun;
And I and many a fellow-tramp
Defied that wind and won.

And we felt free in Kansas
From any sort of fear,
For thirty thousand tramps like us
There harvest every year.

She stretches arms for them to come,
She roars for helpers then,
And so it is in Kansas
That tramps, one month, are men.

We sang in burning Kansas
The songs of Sabbath-school,
The "Day Star" flashing in the East,
The "Vale of Eden" cool.

We sang in splendid Kansas
"The flag that set us free"--
That march of fifty thousand men
With Sherman to the sea.

We feasted high in Kansas
And had much milk and meat.
The tables groaned to give us power
Wherewith to save the wheat.

Our beds were sweet alfalfa hay
Within the barn-loft wide.
The loft doors opened out upon
The endless wheat-field tide.

I loved to watch the windmills spin
And watch that big moon rise.
I dreamed and dreamed with lids half-shut,
The moonlight in my eyes.

For all men dream in Kansas
By noonday and by night,
By sunrise yellow, red and wild,
And moonrise wild and white.

The wind would drive the glittering clouds,
The cotton woods would croon,
And past the sheaves and through the leaves
Came whispers from the moon.


Items of Interest


Notable Natives

This section got so large that I moved it to another file: Notable Kansans.


The Kansas State Flag
The flag, adopted in 1927, has the state Seal centered on a blue background. Above the Seal is the state Crest (a sunflower on a blue and gold bar). Below the Seal is "Kansas" in gold block lettering. The Seal has 34 stars representing the order of statehood. Above the stars is the motto "To the Stars Through Difficulties". The scene shows symbols relating to the state's history--a farmer, log cabin, steamboat on the KS River, wagon train, Indian hunting bison and the rolling hills around Ft. Riley.



Kansas Counties

I found it interesting as a child to learn that only five states have more counties than Kansas (which has 105). I also liked the many unusual county names. Below is a list of how the names originated. For more info see the Kansas Historical Society

Note: Many people in this list that could have been in more than one category. For example, Grant and Washington were both generals as well as presidents.

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Songs about Kansas


Songs about Kansas City


Songs about various Kansas Cities


Songs about Wichita

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