Today’s the day we finish up the latest collection of facts from the State Series. It’s been a long time coming on the information, so hopefully it’s been worth the wait. Without further interruption, let’s get started. Did you know that in Kansas
- Dodge City is the windiest city in the United States.
- A ball of twine in Cawker City measures over 38′ in circumference and weighs more than 16,750 pounds and is still growing.
- The first woman mayor in the United States was Susan Madora Salter. She was elected to office in Argonia in 1887.
- The public swimming pool at the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City occupies half a city block and holds 2 1/2 million gallons of water.
- Hutchinson is nicknamed the Salt City because it was built above some of the richest salt deposits in the world. Salt is still actively mined, processed and shipped from Hutchinson.
- In 1990 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves.
- Holy Cross Shrine in Pfeifer, was known as the 2 Cent Church because the building was built using a 2 cent donation on each bushel of wheat sold by members of the church.
- The First United Methodist Church in Hutchinson was built in 1874 during the time of the grasshopper plagues. The grasshoppers came during the construction of the churches foundation but the pastor continued with the work. As a result, thousands of grasshoppers are mixed into the mortar of the original building’s foundation.
- The world famous fast-food chain of Pizza Hut restaurants opened its first store in Wichita.
- At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
Now, going a bit more ease, we’ll look at the great state of West Virginia. Did you know that…
- West Virginia is considered the southernmost northern state and the northernmost southern state.
- Mother’s Day was first observed at Andrews Church in Grafton on May 10, 1908.
- On January 26, 1960 Danny Heater, a student from Burnsville, scored 135 points in a high school basketball game earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
- The first federal prison exclusively for women in the United States was opened in 1926 in West Virginia.
- Nearly 78% of West Virginia is covered by forests.
- The world’s largest shipment of matches (20 carloads or 210,000,000 matches) was shipped from Wheeling to Memphis, Tennessee, on August 26, 1933.
- Bailey Brown, the first Union solider killed in the Civil War, died on May 22, 1861, at Fetterman, Taylor County.
- Chester Merriman of Romney was the youngest soldier of World War I, having enlisted at the age of 14.
- The first brick street in the world was laid in Charleston, West Virginia, on October 23, 1870, on Summers Street, between Kanawha and Virginia Streets.
- Ironic to its name, the New River is actually one of the oldest rivers in the World and flows south to north, opposite from most rivers because it was formed before the mountains