Kansas Miscellaneous Topics

Amelia Earhart (aviation pioneer), Carrie Nation (temperance activist), former President Eisenhower, former Vice President Charles Curtis, and former presidential candidates Bob Dole and Alf Landon called Kansas their home. NASA astronauts Ronald Evans, Joe Engle, and Steve Hawley also lived in Kansas.

Despite its strong agricultural reputation, Kansas was home to industrial and intellectual pioneers Walter Chrysler of automotive fame, Clyde Cessna & Lloyd Stearman (aviation), Jack Kilby (microchip inventor, The Nobel Prize Winner in Physics 2000), George Washington Carver (educator and scientist), General Richard Myers (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2001-05), Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. (The Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine 1971), and Vernon L. Smith (The Nobel Prize Winner in Economics 2002), Robert Gates (Director of Central Intelligence November 1991 - January 1993, United States Secretary of Defense December 2006 - Present).

Kansas was also home to Danny Carey(musician),Vivian Vance (actress), Samuel Ramey (Opera Singer), Joyce Castle (Opera Singer), Deborah Lee Green (Opera Singer), Louise Brooks (actress), Annette Benning (actress), Steve Balderson (film director), John Brown (abolitionist), Langston Hughes (poet), Gordon Parks (photographer, movie director, musician, author), William Inge (writer), Dennis Hopper (actor), Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil), Coleman Hawkins (Jazz musician), Martina McBride (Country Singer), Melissa Etheridge (musician), Kirstie Alley (actress), Paul Rudd (actor), Charlie Parker (Jazz musician), Jeff Probst (Survivor host), Survivor: Guatemala winner Danni Boatwright, Phil Stacey (American Idol Finalist) and William Allen White (editor).

Famous athletes from Kansas include George Brett, Wilt Chamberlain, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, John H. Outland, Billy Mills, Jim Ryun, Walter Johnson, Jackie Stiles, JoJo White, Caroline Bruce, John Riggins, Maurice Greene, and Lynette Woodard. Kansas is also home to coaches James Naismith, Phog Allen, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Lon Kruger, Tex Winter, Mark Turgeon, and Eddie Sutton.

No discussion of notable Kansas residents would be complete without mentioning the more famous fictional residents: Marshal Matt Dillon from the TV Show Gunsmoke, Mary Ann Summers of Gilligan's Island, Dennis Mitchell (Dennis the Menace), Dean and Sam Winchester from the TV Show Supernatural, Clark Kent/Superman, Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell of Stargate SG-1, Walter and India Bridge from Mr. and Mrs. Bridge Jonas Nightengale from Leap of Faith (film) and of course Kansas's most famous fictional daughter, Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz are examples of some of the more famous fictional Kansas residents.

• The John Brown museum is located in Osawatomie.
• The boyhood home of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Eisenhower Library, and his grave are located in Abilene.
• Abilene is the ending point of the Chisholm Trail where the cattle driven from Texas were loaded onto rail cars.
• The house of Carrie Nation, now a museum, is located in Medicine Lodge.
• Constitution Hall in Lecompton is the location where the Kansas Territorial Government convened and drafted a pro-slavery constitution. [25]
• The Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego features Dorothy's House, a recreation of the farm house featured in the film The Wizard of Oz.
• The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, located in Hutchinson, is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute. The museum features the largest collection of artifacts from the Russian Space Program outside of Moscow. It is also home to Apollo 13, an SR-71 Blackbird, and many space artifacts.
• The award-winning Kansas Museum of History [26] is the state museum, and is located in the capital city of Topeka.
• The world's largest ball of twine (disputed), created August 15, 1953, in Cawker City.
• The Big Well, billed as the Worlds Largest Hand Dug Well is located in Greensburg, Kansas.

Kansas quarter with the American Bison and Sunflowers.

Konza Prairie, in the Flint Hills