31 / 64
area. But most of those people are
actually Missourians, not Kansans.
The metropolitan area spans both
states, stretching over a total of 15
counties. Kansas City, Missouri,
forms the biggest chunk of the metro-
politan area. Its population is close to
460,000.
Kansas City, Kansas
, is
much smaller. Just over 145,000 peo-
ple live here. Other notable cities in
Kansas’s share of the metropolitan
area are
Overland Park
and
Olathe
.
The Kansas City metropolitan area as
a whole hosted a thriving jazz scene in
the 1920s and 1930s. Nowadays, it is
famous for its barbecue.
To the west of Kansas City is
Topeka
, the capital of the state. It’s
Kansas’s fourth-largest city, with over
127,000 residents. Located along the
Kansas River, Topeka boasts a number
of important historical landmarks,
including the
Brown v. Board of
Education
National Historic Site.
The city of
Lawrence
was once a
hotbed for jayhawkers—the abolition-
ists who clashed with slavery support-
ers across the Missouri-Kansas border
in the “Bleeding Kansas” era. Today,
Lawrence (population 87,643) is
home to the Kansas University
Jayhawks. That’s the nickname for
KU’s sports teams and their fans. One
of the most famous Jayhawks was Dr.
James Naismith, the inventor of bas-
ketball. He was a faculty member at
KU, Kansas’s largest public university,
from 1898 to 1937.
31
Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska
This marker near the town of Lebanon indicates
the geographic center of the contiguous United
States.