Page 74 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book
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Kansas
Topeka, the capital city of Kansas
Founded 1854 Incorporated 1857 Elevation 945 ft (288 m) Population 127,473
Metro 233,758
The name Topeka means “a good place to dig potatoes” in the Kansa Native American language. It was chosen in 1855 because it “was novel, of Indian origin and euphonious of sound.”
Topeka developed on the Kansas River in northeast Kansas. For thousands of years this area was home to the ancestors of the Kansa Native Americans. It became part of the colonial territories of France and Spain before finally passing to the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
However, the area of Kansas, and what would become Topeka, remained virtually unexplored until the 1840s, when part of the northeast of the state, and Topeka, became part of the famous Oregon Trail west from Independence, Missouri. A branch of the Oregon Trail left to go through Kansas southwest. That was the Santa Fe Trail.
The Capitol as it looked in the 1880s.
Topeka, 1980.
