Total Area
82,282 square miles
15th in geographic size

Population
2,688,418

Highest Elevation
Mount Sunflower (Wallace County) - 4,039 ft.

Lowest Elevation
Verdigris River (Montgomery County) - 679 ft.

National Parks
Cimarron National Grassland (Morton County)
Fort Scott National Historic Site (Bourbon County)
Fort Larned National Historic Site (Pawnee County)
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (Chase County)
Nicodemus National Historic Site (Graham County)
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site (Shawnee County)

Agriculture and Livestock
Principal crops grown in Kansas are wheat, sorghum (milo), hay and corn. Approximately 10 million bushels of wheat are harvested each year in Kansas. Reno, Sumner and Thomas counties lead the state in wheat production. At least 90% of the land area in Kansas (47 million acres) is devoted to agriculture production. Kansas ranks first in the number of commercial cattle processed with 8.03 million head (1999). Buffalo have made a comeback in Kansas with more than 6,000 head raised on ranches and refuges.

Military Bases
Fort Riley – Army (Riley County)
Fort Leavenworth – Army (Leavenworth)
McConnell Air Force Base (Wichita)
Air National Guard (Topeka)

Hills/Prairies
The Smoky Hills are rugged limestone hills in central Kansas. The Flint Hills, in east central Kansas, cover several million acres of undulating, virtually treeless prairie and are also the largest segment of true tallgrass prairie remaining in the United States. The Gypsum Hills in south central Kansas provide a panorama of buttes and mesas.

Geological Formations
Kansas was once the bed of a huge inland sea and vast deposits of limestone exist throughout the state. Monument Rocks and Castle Rock, both chalk formations, tower over the surrounding plains in Gove County. In and around Gove County, historically significant fossils have been unearthed with many on display at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays. The most significant is the “fish within a fish” fossil.

Seasons
All four seasons are experienced in Kansas. Statewide, the average annual temperature is 56 degrees. The average rainfall is 26.5 inches statewide; however, precipitation decreases as you travel west. The average in southeast Kansas is 45 inches annually, while the western border averages just 15 inches of rain.

Time Zones
Kansas is divided by two time zones: Mountain and Central. Four of the western counties observe Mountain Time. The east-west span of Kansas is great enough that the sun rises and sets on the western border 30 minutes later than on the eastern end.