I want to live in rural Kansas (Wichita, Overland Park: housing, rent)

[TwoSticks]

Wasn't Cottonwood Falls written about in a book some years ago?

[darstar]

Remember, Kansas is a Red state. very conservative. If that is your depression , you will be fine..... I have some very nice friends in Kansas, they are self reliant , tough , and proud. You need to be, to live , anywhere in the Great Planes . The climate is extreme , and the Tornado's...........well , if you don't like it there ( they don't call it the land of OZ for nothing)......, just stand outside and face the storm....it may take you to another state you may like ! lol

[Plains10]

Originally Posted by TwoSticks

Wasn't Cottonwood Falls written about in a book some years ago?

Cottonwood Falls is a very rural town in Chase County in the Flint Hills region. It does not have many jobs, but is close to Emporia. The Kansas Turnpike goes right through the county with easy access to larger cities like Topeka and Wichita.

[straw hat]

Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas are the most prone to have tornadoes. The best thing to do is come and see the state. Take a driving trip across the state. You might read some of the other posts on this site. I was born in the eastern part of the state and still live here. I have seen tornadoes but knock on wood I have not lost any property to one. If you keep your wits about you, you can be safe anywhere. Before you buy, you need to go to the coffee shop or the town café and talk with the local people. Just listen to them talk you will learn more that you might think.

[cp1969]

I have lived my entire 56 years in eastern Kansas and have yet to actually see so much as a funnel cloud, let alone a tornado.

[darstar]

Not real sure why , but , Kansas has always been one of those states , that , you don't go to , unless its for a specific reason. Traveling to most places , will take you thru MO., NE., Kansas is an option , but not used as is I-80 thru NE. for example. ..... I took I-70 once , not sure why , and , it was a terrible highway. Full of heaves , pot holes , and accelerating demise of pavement....... I hope they have improved the roads these last few years.

[platformartist79]

hi. we live in gypsum ks.... about 15 minutes from salina. we are trying to sell our home. it is on a corner lot and very private. salina has several colleges for continuing education. contact if interested thankk you !!

[dr. kenneth noisewater]

just to clear up some things...

as per mile high's post of 7 months ago, you may or may not be interested in knowing that i have lived in kansas for all but one month of my life. at the time of my posting, i had lived in hays for over five years successively, and roughly nine years total. so it would stand to reason that i would have a decent picture of things, no? there is a colorful saying about opinions and a part of the colon that applies here.

as for i-70, it's a pretty decent road now because kansas does nothing but road construction from march thru november. it's now 3 lanes most of the way from topeka to kc outskirts. i heard somewhere kansas has the 4th best roads in the country. well, they should, because the construction contractors are getting fat off of (in my view) excessive and unnecessary re-building of i-70.

no, i am not a doctor. watch anchorman and you'll get it.

now back to your regularly scheduled message board.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Selena Thayer

I am very familiar with all the places about which you inquire. None of them are free of tornados. You have to have a basement or hole in the ground and hope for the best. Most native Kansans run outside to look at tornados if there are any around before they head to underground shelter. I am 60 years old, a Kansas native, and have never seen a tornado. Perhaps one time one was near but it was raining so hard it was impossible to see anything. You can get a decent engineering education at K-State in Manhattan. It is very scenic in the Manhattan area. The downside of small towns in Kansas is the social structure. They're loving and caring if you are "local family", originally from there. If you're not, they want you to go back where you came from because your education, intelligence or talent will make them feel inferior. The main activity for young people is to drink prodigious amounts of beer, raise hell, try everything and have no particular direction in life. If you're capable of functioning socially independently and you don't crave universal acceptance from your peers, you'll be fine. A newcomer, a/k/a "Outsider" has to be very independent to survive. Given that, the slower pace, dewy mornings, fabulous skies, fascinating passage of the seasons is the upside of living in rural Kansas.

I'm a native Kansan (Johnson County) and what you say is typical of what I heard from friends who were from rural Kansas while I attended KU. They said people also were "in your business" a lot - gossip and such. I suppose that's the same in any rural area though.

I live in urban Denver, so the only part of Kansas I've seen lateley was from behind the wheel at 80 mph., driving to KC. I'd honestly go insane living out in the middle of nowhere! Oh, and as a native, I've never seen a tornado either. Maybe they're only visible to non-natives

[Sco]

Originally Posted by Selena Thayer

I am very familiar with all the places about which you inquire. None of them are free of tornados. You have to have a basement or hole in the ground and hope for the best. Most native Kansans run outside to look at tornados if there are any around before they head to underground shelter. I am 60 years old, a Kansas native, and have never seen a tornado. Perhaps one time one was near but it was raining so hard it was impossible to see anything. You can get a decent engineering education at K-State in Manhattan. It is very scenic in the Manhattan area. The downside of small towns in Kansas is the social structure. They're loving and caring if you are "local family", originally from there. If you're not, they want you to go back where you came from because your education, intelligence or talent will make them feel inferior. The main activity for young people is to drink prodigious amounts of beer, raise hell, try everything and have no particular direction in life. If you're capable of functioning socially independently and you don't crave universal acceptance from your peers, you'll be fine. A newcomer, a/k/a "Outsider" has to be very independent to survive. Given that, the slower pace, dewy mornings, fabulous skies, fascinating passage of the seasons is the upside of living in rural Kansas.

+1000!!! I was born and lived in Kansas for 20+ years, both small towns and in Wichita. If you plan to live in a rural, small town and you are white, conservative and Christian, then you will eventually be accepted and your outsider status will be forgiven. However, if you are a minority, have liberal political leanings or do not attend some type of Christian church, then you will be treated as a pariah forever. If you are gay, or your family is non traditional in any sense (same sex couple, biracial couple, etc), you would literally be in danger and I would not consider it safe. It is a sad but true fact that beneath the friendly facade of small town Kansas, there is a level of bigotry and racism that may be shocking to people used to living in other areas or raised in big cities. In many ways, the culture of the small Kansas town is a throwback to a different era and bigotry is still out in the open, mainstream and accepted. Also, in many respects, the small towns have problems that mirror the large urban inner city areas, including a disdain for education, chronic poverty, drug/alcohol abuse and large numbers of bored, unemployed, intoxicated miscreants.

While small town Kansas can be a nice place to live, do not be fooled into thinking that it is some type of pastoral paradise where the cares of the world cease to exist.