Kansas, Or Oz?
Thanks to Dorothy Gale, we all have a mental image of what the American Midwest should look like: flat land as far as the eye can see, with a few dirt roads cutting through vast fields. And while many in the region still live out this dream every day, there’s another part of Kansas that is nothing like "The Wizard of Oz."
This other side contains some of the best entertainment venues in America. You could visit The Grand Emporium Arcade Bar & Lounge and play pinball machines from Philadelphia or settle into a comfy chair at Upstairs Downstairs Books for a good read. The Granada is a popular spot for a concert, and you could catch an indie rock band at RecordBar, listen to jazz at the Blue Room or watch some live comedy at ImprovOZ.
This burgeoning entertainment district has led to Kansas City being named one of the best cities for millennials by Forbes.com, Livability.com and Visit KC. It’s also helped earn the city a top ten ranking by TripAdvisor in its annual Traveler’s Choice Awards for most highly rated small cities in America. And, most importantly, it’s helped earn Kansas City bragging rights as the only city in the top 10,000 to make Travel + Leisure magazine’s list of “Best Places to Live in America.”
While Kansas City has a nice assortment of cultural venues and is a great place to stay, nothing compares to the breadth and depth of attractions located just outside the city center. Whether you want to explore nature at The Living Planet Aquarium or get an up close look at dinosaurs at The Biodome, you can find just about every type of experience within an hour's drive from downtown.
The good news: you don’t need to leave town. Kansas City is also a top destination in the heart of the country, with plenty of natural beauty and entertainment options right at our doorstep. Whether you want to hike, camp or bike on one of the area’s many trails or go fly-fishing, there are plenty of outdoor activities to fit every taste. In addition, there are many fun cultural attractions within a few hours’ drive that focus on everything from vintage cars and music to sports and art.
While Kansas City is a great place to visit, people still don’t know how to pronounce our city’s name. Are they calling us "Kansas" or are they saying "Kansas City"? According to Rick Bergmann of WDAF, the answer is that most people say “Kansas” the first time they hear it, but will revert back to “Kas-ten-a in their second or third exposure.” And he adds that "Kas-ten-a" has a similar pronunciation as the other four states that lie across our border: Hawaii, Idaho and Nevada.
So, why do people say "Kansas" instead of "Kas-ten-a"? Some believe that people are pronouncing it as they see it. The city itself is officially named Kansas City, but the state of Kansas is called “Kan-sas” on most signs. And to make matters even more confusing, the name of each state is properly pronounced the same way that you would pronounce it if you lived in the adjacent state (Missouri and Iowa both use a long "I" sound). This applies to all 50 states with only five exceptions: Arkansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Those states all get special treatment in pronunciation.
Kansas City has been a dot on maps for almost as long as there have been maps, but the Midwest wasn’t always Kansas City. The name comes from the Native American Kansa tribe, who were one of nine tribes that originally populated Kansas Territory. The territory later became Kansas (which uses a "K"), and the city, as you might guess, got its nickname because of the Kansa's association with the land where they lived.
So how did "Kansas" end up on our map? One story suggests that James K. Polk, 11th President of the U.S., chose the name because it began with a "K" and matched the beginning of his last name. Some believe it's because a political rival of President Polk wanted to give him an uncomfortable reminder that his home state was part of the new territory. Others think he chose it in honor of Thomas Hart Benton, a senator from Missouri who represented the area at that time.
It was once common for people to add an "s" at the end of Kansas (just like you would do with California or Texas), but that use is slowly disappearing.
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