Many people imagine the great middle of the U.S. between the coasts to be a homogeneous mass, but in fact the towns and cities that dot the map across America actually differ from each other greatly. Lawrence, Kansas, is a particularly rich cultural oasis at the opening of the Great Plains.
Though 50 miles may seem like a short distance today, 100 years ago it was a long trip, and towns 50 miles apart developed independently with their own local cultures and characteristics. Each had its own collection of immigrants bringing their cultural roots from the Old World. Each had its own economic drivers and geographical characteristics as well. All of these things combine to determine the individual culture and personality of each town.
Lawrence, Kansas, is about midway between Kansas City, the big metropolis that sits on the border of Kansas and Missouri, and Topeka, the capital city of Kansas, the head of state government. But Lawrence's biggest economic driver and cultural determinant is Kansas University, which was founded in 1866.
The city's population is about 90,000, about 23,000 of which is the student body of KU. It's a small town with a large university that dominates its personality. Lawrence is also the home to Haskell Indian Nations University.
Lawrence is close to the actual center of the 48 states of the continental U.S. The exact geological center of the lower 48 states is in Lebanon, Kansas, about 225 miles west of Lawrence. Lawrence is on the eastern side of the wide open spaces of Kansas.
If you are driving west across the U.S., Lawrence is at the tail end of the hilly country characterized by Missouri's Ozarks, before the topography flattens out onto Western Kansas and what was once called The Great American Desert.
Bleeding Kansas
Lawrence was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery settlers, and immediately became a target for pro-slavery forces coming into the state to ensure Kansas would become a slave state.
The settlement was central to what was called Bleeding Kansas, the term coined by Horace Greeley to refer to the violence and bloodshed over slavery in Kansas, which later erupted across the nation in the Civil War.
The violence came after the Kansas-Nebraska Act mandated that the question of whether the territories would enter the Union as either free or slave states would be decided by elections. The rush to populate the states with free or slave factions led to out-and-out war.
Lawrence, less than 50 miles from the slave state of Missouri's border, was a flashpoint in that conflict. It was the site of the Wakarusa War, the Sacking of Lawrence and the Lawrence Massacre, or Quantrill's Raid.
In 1856 one Sheriff Samuel Jones tried to arrest some free-state settlers and was shot and driven out of town. He later returned with an army of 800 southerners and a cannon, which was stationed on Mount Oread, now the site of the Kansas University campus. It was five years before the official outbreak of the Civil War, but it was war.
The troops surrounded the town to prevent escape and attacked the free state forces holed up in the Free State Hotel, which was bombed into rubble. The Free State Hotel was rebuilt by free state forces led by Colonel Shalor Eldridge, but was again destroyed during Quantrill's Raid in 1863, when pro-slavery terrorist William Quantrill launched a guerrilla attack that killed 180 people and left the town in ruins.
The town was rebuilt again and adopted the slogan "from ashes to immortality," which Lawrence still celebrates. Today what was the Free State Hotel still stands as the Eldridge House, one of the best hotels in the area.
Today in Lawrence
Today Lawrence's violent political history is deeply submerged and the atmosphere of the city is dominated by the university, with its traditions of education and open inquiry and the cultural diversity that comes from being home to students from around the world. Lawrence's main commercial street is Massachusetts Street, the site of the Eldridge House, and a thriving strip of shops, restaurants and bars.
There are surprisingly few of the standard corporate franchises, and instead the area is dominated by ideosyncratic local businesses with hand painted signs and colorful, humorous and personal designs.
Musicians like to play on Massachusetts Street.
The Robert Dole Institute of Politics is a combination museum, events venue and memorial to Kansas' conservative senator and presidential candidate.
"Barack Chalk Jayhawk" is a play on the cheer used at football and basketball games: Rock Chalk Jayhawk. The city turned out to see Obama recently when he visited.
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