KFB Insights: Sunsets and sisal twine

Kansas was admitted to the United States on Jan. 29, 1861, after a tumultuous territorial existence as bloody as it was brief. Those early struggles likely informed the state’s motto: “Ad Astra per Aspera” or “to the stars though difficulties.”

In light of the Sunflower State’s upcoming milestone, here are a few bits of random trivia gathered from mostly reputable books, websites and memories.

Its status as the nation’s best state wasn’t cemented until Frank Stoeber created the world’s largest ball of twine in Cawker City. Certain sites on the internet qualify the claim of “world’s largest” by noting it’s the “largest ball of sisal twine built by a community.” What those sites fail to disclose is that Stoeber had the foresight to donate the ball to the city in 1961, which promptly built a gazebo over it to prevent it from rolling away.

Stoeber’s sisal sphere continues to grow with annual “twine-a-thons” each August, and it has also served as the inspiration for some other comically large attractions around the state, like the world’s largest easel in Goodland. Standing 80 feet tall, it holds a 32-by-24-foot replica of a Vincent van Gogh painting of sunflowers.

Wilson is home to the world’s largest hand-painted Czech Egg, which clocks in at 20 feet high and 15 feet wide. Meanwhile, the northernmost stop on the Chisholm Trail was Abilene, and appropriately, since 2022, the city boasts the world’s largest belt buckle.

Kansas is also home to some notable firsts like Atchison’s Amelia Earhart who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Independence hosted the first professional night baseball game in 1930. Today Wichita is known as the “Air Capital of the World” for airplane manufacturing, but its culinary contributions include both the first White Castle and Pizza Hut.

In agriculture, Wichita also boasts the world’s largest grain terminal, capable of holding 20 million bushels across 246 silos that stretch more than 2,600 feet.

Contrary to popular belief, Kansas isn’t the flattest state. Florida holds that title with its highest point 345 feet above sea level. Kansas’ elevation ranges from just less than 700 feet above sea level in the southeast corner, rising to more than 4,000 at the peak of Mount Sunflower in Wallace County.

Formerly the “Queen of the Cowtowns” and “Cowboy Capital of the World,” Dodge City is perhaps better known as the United States’ windiest city with an average breeze of about 15 mph, roughly 50 percent more than “Windy City” poser Chicago.

There’s a long history of innovative and accomplished folks from Kansas who have shaped not just our state but the nation and world as well. They were undoubtedly influenced by the same natural wonders we are today.

It’s worth taking a moment or two on the day our state was born to acknowledge these accomplishments and note that in addition to hosting large objects and being first in many endeavors, Kansas and its vast sky are home to the best sunsets we get to share with some of the finest people.

There are certainly still difficulties to overcome before we reach the stars, but until we do, Kansas is a good place to call home.

"Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.