How Do You Spell the Word Kansas?

[W. Gray]

One web site says there are fifty-four ways to spell Kansas.

Another says eighty.

William Least Heat-Moon in his book PrairyErth devotes a full page showing 140 ways to spell the word.

Beginning with "C"—47 variations
Beginning with "K"—87 variations
Beginning with "E"—1
Beginning with "G"—2
Beginning with "Q"—3

Examples
E - Ecanze
G - Guaes, Guas
Q - Quans, Quaus, Quonzai [no Quivira though]
C - Canzez, Canses, Cannes, Cancas
K - Kants, Kanse, Kansea, Kansees, Kaw, Kanzas

[Teresa]

Jeepers.. I do good to get the one spelling right.. 

[Rudy Taylor]

Waldo, you manage to come up with the most interesting factoids! I've got to write
a column about this one.

[W. Gray]

Let me throw this question out to all on the forum.


When did the first recorded murder on Kansas soil take place?

[Teresa]

Between my first and second divorce?  hahahahahahaha

No seriously.. I would say 1861
just a guess, but better than my first one

[Diane Amberg]

 As a territory or as a state? 1855, 1858, or 1861

[Rudy Taylor]

Was it when Caney killed Abilene?

[Mom70x7]

boo! hiss!




(actually -  )

[W. Gray]

The other half came in and asked me what I was laughing so hard about when I read Teresa's initial response. Many of us will relate.

Teresa and Diane were off by a few hundred years.

The key word is soil.

When did the first murder on Kansas soil occur?

Eighty years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and less than fifty years after Columbus landed.

In 1541, the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado committed the first recorded murder.

He summarily executed an Indian guide named Turk.

The guide led Coronado and his expedition from New Spain as far as present-day Junction City promising there were plenty of gold and other riches in the land known as Quivira.

The Indian could not produce, however, and Coronado killed him for lying.

Turk and Coronado did not look in the right places.

About 317 years later, lucky prospectors discovered gold in large quantities along Cherry Creek and elsewhere. One-hundred thousand men clamored to the Kansas gold fields.

[Diane Amberg]

Yer tricky, you is. I should have known! Mom did a series of paintings of Coronado's exploration for the Kansas 75th anniversary. She did a lot of research for her paintings and that incident was mentioned. Shame on me.