Kansas

Name: Liberal and Seward County
Brand: Lidia Hook-Gray
SKU: 9780738582795
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

There’s no place like Kansas. From the championship tradition of Wichita State baseball to the terror of a twister slashing through Tornado Alley and the unflinching witness of a prairie fort, our Kansas history books bring home the unconventional heritage of the Sunflower State. Set out a rocking chair in Emporia, the “Front Porch to the Flint Hills,” or drill into the legacy of the El Dorado Oil Boom. A Topeka Harvey House, a Salina lecture hall and a Kansas City B-25 factory swirl together in our catalogue’s intriguing mix of Kansas history.

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Liberal and Seward County

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Saline County

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Wichita Haunts

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Salina

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Parsons

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Mulvane

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Wichita

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Kansas Oddities

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Morris County

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Wabaunsee County

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Lansing

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Marymount College of Kansas

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Arkansas City

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Arkansas City

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Liberal and Seward County

9780738582795

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

From towns like Liberal and Beer City to Kismet and Arkalon, Seward County has been the home of a tough, yet imaginative, people. Seymour Rogers, who homesteaded in the southern portion of the county, hand-dug a well and provided travelers with free water. Before long, the "liberal well" became the town of Liberal. The late 1880s saw settlers making their way to southwest Kansas to claim their 160 acres and hopefully fulfill their dreams. Farmers, ranchers, newspaper editors, shopkeepers, and a few ne'er-do-wells populated Seward County. Liberal became the county seat after a battle between what are now the ghost towns of Fargo Springs and Springfield. Horrific dust storms, grinding depressions, blizzards, and droughts tested the pioneers. Those that stayed were eventually rewarded by returning rains, the discovery of oil and gas, and the construction of a B-24 Army Air Base. With a spirit borne of those sturdy pioneers, the people of Liberal and Seward County have come a long way.

Saline County

9781467111836

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Early Saline County was a land rich in Native American history. Only a few settlers migrated to the area prior to the railroad development that started in 1867. Milling and grains, livestock, and even gypsum mining all influenced the growth of Saline County. Salina became a prominent city, whereas Hedville and other towns were altered, almost lost, as the railroads continued to build and change their depots, creating boom and bust economies in the county. Tornados, fires, droughts, and floods challenged the hardy souls who called this area home. Salina and the towns that have survived the booms and busts have a robust history.

Wichita Haunts

9780738582870

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Shadowman is seen roaming the grounds at Cowtown. The blacksmith touches investigators in his shop. The former church on Hillside Street has a friendly ghost named Belle. These are just a few of the characters that linger in Haunted Wichita. Wichita grew from the prairie as a cattle town into "the Peerless Princess of the Plains." Influenced by bold settlers, the city reflects the American spirit of capitalism and manifest destiny. Explore the haunted history of Wichita through supernatural tales from Cowtown, the Delano District, theaters, and hotels. Most are authentic haunted locations, as documented by Wichita Paranormal Research Society (WPRS) and Paranormal Research Investigators (PRI).

Salina

9780738561813

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Early in 1858, three men walked across the eastern half of Kansas Territory intent on starting a town. Although the volatile conflict between Free State and proslavery forces still simmered, the bloodshed had abated, and Free State factions had gained the upper hand. People turned their interests to more peaceful pursuits, including town building. Armed with a compass and stovepipe hat instead of a tripod, the three young Scotsmen selected and surveyed a town site along the Smoky Hill River, near the confluence of the Saline River in north-central Kansas. The tiny settlement soon became a way-stop for westbound travelers and a hub of activity for hunters, soldiers, land seekers, and surveyors. Now 150 years later, Salina (pronounced with a long i) still thrives as a center for commercial, cultural, civic, and social activity. Voted an All-America City in 1989, Salina is home to nearly 50,000 people who enjoy midwestern living in the heart of America.

Parsons

9780738561738

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Parsons, located in southeast Kansas, owes its existence to the railroad. When the first Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad locomotive reached the southern border of Kansas in June 1870, the railroad won two prizes, the coveted right to build across Oklahoma Indian Territory and the right to acquire extensive land grants in the territory. The fall of the same year, railroad executives selected a site for a major junction and terminal. The Parsons Town Company sold its first lots in 1871 at Parsons Junction, named for railroad president Judge Levi Parsons. Because of the town's phenomenal growth, it soon earned the title of "Infant Wonder of the West." The photographs contained in this book, including some of the earliest known of Parsons, serve as testimony to the energies and ingenuity of early settlers. These images also depict the development of Parsons-on-the-Prairie and its transformation from frontier town to the "Queen City of the Great Southwest."

Mulvane

9780738598710

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Mulvane sits on the Sedgwick/Sumner County line, adjacent to the Arkansas River, and is roughly 10 miles south of Wichita. It was founded in 1879 by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway on the rail line that comes south from Wichita and evolved as a railroad town and agricultural community. It has survived floods, droughts, tornadoes, and fires and is now the home of over 6,000 residents. Mulvane is a progressive city filled with people who have a keen eye on the future while celebrating their past. Thousands of residents and visitors come to town during the third weekend of August for the annual Old Settlers Days celebration, which has taken place each year since 1873; the event was actually established before the town was incorporated. Images of America: Mulvane offers a glimpse of the people and events of the past that helped shape the present of "The City of the Valley."

Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

9781626198357

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Bank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history.

Wichita

9780738593906

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Wichita, Kansas, was founded in 1870 as a small frontier cow town. By 1900, after having gone through one of the most remarkable real estate boom-and-bust cycles in US history, it had become the largest city in the state and a regional hub of commerce. Wichita flourished between 1900 and 1940, and its population quadrupled as it became a world leader in aircraft production. Picture postcards were introduced just as Wichita entered this latter phase of development, and the colorful new form of communication amply documented Wichita's history during those years.

Kansas Oddities

9781467139229

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Touch down at Dead Cow International Airport and sample the state's bumper crop of bizarre history. The most commonplace sights contain unlikely stories, from the bulldozer's Morrowsville origins to the sunflower's journey from outlawed weed to state symbol. Some of this heritage lies submerged or buried, like the world's only saltwater spring, which now sits at the bottom of a man-made lake. Rumored caches of the Fleagle Gang's loot still draw treasure hunters in spades. From mariachi legends to rodeo roundups, Roger Ringer gathers in a vast and varied harvest of Kansas lore.

Morris County

9781467111065

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The establishment of the Santa Fe Trail, along with the Kaw Indian reservation and the influx of white settlers answering the unyielding call of Manifest Destiny, set the scene for Morris County and its part in the epic story of the American West and Bleeding Kansas. Millions of dollars in goods and hundreds of thousands of men passed through Morris County during that era, and inevitably it became the stomping ground of many notable historic figures, both famous and infamous. "Bloody" Bill Anderson, Dick Yeager, Jack McDowell, Jesse Chisholm, and George Armstrong Custer are just a few of the names that have made Morris County legendary. Since Morris County has been tamed, it has been known as prime cattle country and farmland and is home to the Council Grove Federal Reservoir, which brings in thousands of waterskiers, anglers, boaters, and campers every year.

Wabaunsee County

9780738560779

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

In 2009, Wabaunsee County will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Although Wabaunsee County was first created in 1855 by the Kansas territorial legislature as Richardson County, it had no county government and was attached to neighboring Shawnee County in legal jurisdiction. In 1859, the legislature renamed the county Wabaunsee, after the Potawatomi Indian chief, and in March of that year, the first election for county officers was held. The county lies in the heart of the Kansas Flint Hills, and it boasts some of the most beautiful landscapes in the state. While located only 30 miles from the state capital in Topeka, it retains its rural atmosphere, even today. The largest of its seven incorporated towns has less than 1,000 residents. The earliest settlers lived among large populations of Native Americans. During the Civil War, the Underground Railroad operated actively in the county. In 1880, the first railroad was built in the county, and the towns along its line boomed. When a second line was introduced in 1887, the county saw its greatest growth. Today residents enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the rugged Flint Hills, lush pastures, and fertile bottomland sustaining the local economy as it has for a century and a half. A large section of highway across the county has been designated the Kansas Native Stone Scenic Byway, and tourism has begun to play an increasingly larger role in the county's economy.

Lansing

9780738561929

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Founded by Civil War veteran William Lansing Taylor, Lansing is home to a population quickly approaching 11,000 residents. It is also home to the Lansing Correctional Facility (formerly the Kansas State Penitentiary), the oldest prison in Kansas. Designed by Erasmus Carr, architect of the Kansas State Capitol, the building has stood watch over the area for more than 140 years. As one will find, Lansing and the prison have grown together and mutually benefitted each other. Lansing is also home to Mount Muncie Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the state. It is the resting place of several famous people, including Fred Harvey. The photographs in this book are glimpses into time of a small village with one-room schools to a bustling community with one of the busiest north-south highways in Kansas.

Marymount College of Kansas

9781626195738

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

One year before the United States granted women the right to vote, the Sisters of St. Joseph broke ground on the construction of the first all-women's college in Kansas. Escalating construction costs put the school's future in jeopardy until Mother Antoinette took her plea for additional funds to Pope Benedict XV himself. Dubbed the "Million-Dollar College," the hilltop campus overlooking the Smoky Hill River finally opened its doors in 1922. The thousands who matriculated throughout its sixty-seven-year existence created a lasting legacy in the Sunflower State. Join alumnus Patricia Ackerman as she preserves the inspiring history of Marymount College.

Arkansas City

9780738560496

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Arkansas City: People, Places, and Events is a continuation of the story of Arkansas City. The first Arkansas City told a general history of the community and its origins, the major events that occurred, and the people who built and shaped the community. Arkansas City: People, Places, and Events delves deeper into the early pioneer history of this Kansas town. It covers more of the major founders who came into Osage territory not only making a home but creating a thriving community, major entertainers and athletes who lived and played in Arkansas City, law enforcement origins and events, and organizations that helped support and shape the area.

Arkansas City

9780738552408

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Arkansas City has often been called "the gateway to the West." The name lends a lot to describing the town--a town that was founded as a border town to Indian Territory, a major trade hub to the Indian agencies in Indian Territory, and a major transportation center for those wishing to travel through the territory and farther west. Arkansas City started off as a small town with false-fronted stores but became a bustling community where the people were forward thinkers and pushed for quality and modernization in everything they brought to the city whether that was business, industry, or entertainment. Arkansas City is known for the Cherokee Strip Land Rush of September 16, 1893, interaction with the Native Americans in Indian Territory, farming, ranching, and aircraft. Although Arkansas City was a civilized community, it was a city on the fringe of a lawless and unsettled territory where outlaws lurked and Native Americans were forced to settle. People loaded their wagons or went by train to cross through Oklahoma to Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, leaving from Arkansas City. Due to Arkansas City's location, interaction with major figures and events in history, and its importance to travel farther west, Arkansas City was truly "the gateway to the West."