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My most recent read on Kansas came through a P.R. packet at work: The Ogallala Road. It's more of a love memoir than anything, but touches on land ownership and dwindling water.
It has more to do with greed than anything else. SW Kansas never had a climate that was good for growing corn and other water intensive crops, but you can thank the emergence of big commercial agribusiness and subsidies for that. Also, all the feedlots and packing plants moved out to SW Kansas and you can follow the clever marketing "grain fed" beef, with grains referring to corn grown via fossil water. SW Kansas has more in common culturally with the SW and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and is now a majority minority area. Water supply issues and recurring droughts will be the defining problem of the 21st century in states like Kansas as the climate continues to get warmer.
Hays is a good small town. Strong economy and good paying jobs relative to living costs.
My wife lived there for 5 years and I lived there a short time as well. You might also look into McPherson, I lived there 3 years and loved it. Actually, I'd say most of the towns 15,000-100,000 in Kansas have decent economies. If you're just looking for a job and a place to live until school why not just pick Lawrence, its a great town. The economy might be a little sluggish relatively, but isn't bad by any means. I live in Lawrence now and its a great place to be. Imo its in the top 3 towns in Kansas. The others being McPherson and Manhattan.
I'll give McPherson a look as well!
My main worry about jumping straight to Lawrence would be battling college kids for a job. In reality this may or may not be a issue, but I've lived in a college town before and know how the businesses usually look out for the students first. And rightfully so.
Mainly though, I want to experience something else before eventually moving to or around Lawrence. I want to see what else Kansas has to offer, and from the suggestions here there appears to be a lot
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadioSilence
If you intend to live in western Kansas, Hays is probably the way to go. It is a small town built around a small university (Fort Hays State). But realistically the best opportunities in the state will be in Lawrence or the Kansas City area.
My most recent read on Kansas came through a P.R. packet at work: The Ogallala Road. It's more of a love memoir than anything, but touches on land ownership and dwindling water.
Another vote for Hays lol, and yes I'm starting to realize some of the best options appear to be on the eastern side of the state. Right now I'm still in the information phase so all of this is welcomed info. It would be nice if I could visit before hand, maybe a summer trip? Who knows. Perhaps I'll add The Ogallala Road to my readings as well.
Last edited by RollingHeels; 05-12-2014 at 10:33 PM..
That was a great read, and I will definetly give William Least Heat-Moon's book a looking into. I love sports as well, and coming from Carolina we have some great rivalries also. Most notably to the outside world being Carolina/Duke. While it's crazy intense on the court (football too, but basketball more so) it doesn't have the same background as say a KU/Missouri. In other words, no bloodshed. Well come to think about it there was a couple games there... I digress.
I'm hoping you're an author (I see you wrote historian), because you provided a great summary and place for me to continue my education of Kansas.
For now I will read up on the Flint Hills of Kansas, next up being that book.
Glad it helped. Lawrence is definitely a basketball town first, but football is popular in Kansas as well--the KU/K-State is a heated rivalry. My cousin was at K-State and I hadn't seen her for years, and walked into the house in a KU t-shirt. She looked at me as if I'd just backed over her dog and wailed, "MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD!" But what characterizes the rivalries is an element of fun. It's not quite like Washington/Oregon, which is for blood and hate. There are teams I would root for WSU to beat. If the University of Pyongyang showed up to play Oregon, expect me there holding a big picture of the Dear Leader, chanting slogans in Korean.
If you need more reading suggestions, I'll get my butt down to my library and rustle up some. I'm not that up on current books on Kansas, but I've read a few I thought were solid. It's got more natural beauty and topography than most outsiders reckon. And yes, I write, though I haven't done any professional historical writing about Kansas. Studied that just for fun, and because it's home even if I don't live there.
Enjoy your search and exploration. There's a lot of Kansas outside KCK and Wichita, but those also have a lot to offer. One thing you shouldn't have to worry about is too many crowds of tourists, since last I looked, we were either 49th or 50th in per capita tourism dollars in the whole country. I think at least a percentage of us take a certain perverse pleasure in that, though there's no doubt we'd gain economically if "Let's take the family on a fun-filled vacation to Kansas" were said by anyone, ever.
Glad it helped. Lawrence is definitely a basketball town first, but football is popular in Kansas as well--the KU/K-State is a heated rivalry. My cousin was at K-State and I hadn't seen her for years, and walked into the house in a KU t-shirt. She looked at me as if I'd just backed over her dog and wailed, "MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD!" But what characterizes the rivalries is an element of fun. It's not quite like Washington/Oregon, which is for blood and hate. There are teams I would root for WSU to beat. If the University of Pyongyang showed up to play Oregon, expect me there holding a big picture of the Dear Leader, chanting slogans in Korean.
If you need more reading suggestions, I'll get my butt down to my library and rustle up some. I'm not that up on current books on Kansas, but I've read a few I thought were solid. It's got more natural beauty and topography than most outsiders reckon. And yes, I write, though I haven't done any professional historical writing about Kansas. Studied that just for fun, and because it's home even if I don't live there.
Enjoy your search and exploration. There's a lot of Kansas outside KCK and Wichita, but those also have a lot to offer. One thing you shouldn't have to worry about is too many crowds of tourists, since last I looked, we were either 49th or 50th in per capita tourism dollars in the whole country. I think at least a percentage of us take a certain perverse pleasure in that, though there's no doubt we'd gain economically if "Let's take the family on a fun-filled vacation to Kansas" were said by anyone, ever.
Well I'll take any more reading suggestions you have, but you don't have to go to the library! With that said, if you happen to be at the library anyway that's a different story Typically I read colums and stories from the web more so than books. But if you know something that is a must read, lay it on me. I still have to check out the first book you recommended.
I've never heard anyone say "Well kids it's vacation time again, how about Kansas!" haha but hey that's fine. I wouldn't want to live around a tourist trap anyway, even though I sorta do being pretty close to the NC outer banks. This time of year the traffic noticeably picks up, and it's easy pickins for the highway patrol. We can hear the sirens from our house. Another victim of higher auto insurance premiums who couldn't wait to get to the beach. This all notably drops off around September. Word of advice for anyone reading thinking about a summer get away trip to our beaches, don't speed. You will get caught, you won't get off with a warning, you will get a ticket, it sucks.
Looking forward to learning more and more about Kansas. Guess I need to get William Least Heat-Moon's PrairyErth on my wish list.
Looking forward to learning more and more about Kansas. Guess I need to get William Least Heat-Moon's PrairyErth on my wish list.
Oh, I didn't mean going to the library like most people mean it. I mean going downstairs in my house. Half of my basement is a library. But I do owe the Boise library a visit, as it has been a while, and they have a fantastic one. In the meantime, I went downstairs. Due to a recent move and an impending move, it is not as well organized as it ought to be, but I ran across Roadside Kansas. It's a good travel companion if you happen to be visiting, fairly dull if you aren't. Tony Horwitz (who is worth reading on any topic he tackles) has a great book on John Brown, and while much of it takes place outside Kansas, his impact on the state is lasting. Somewhere in my history stacks is my copy of Jennison's Jayhawkers, which will if nothing else tell you what hellions the 7th Kansas Cavalry were. Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales from the Tallgrass Prairie, by Jim Hoy, succeeds at once by being professorial yet native--but again, we're in my part of the state, and I should emphasize again that there's a lot of Kansas that isn't that part. You would want 1001 Kansas Place Names (I might even still have a spare copy of that and Roadside Kansas I'd send you), so that you would pronounce Olathe, Admire, Arkansas (the river), Salina, Saline, and other places correctly.
In Washington, they have the same horrible tourist trap situation along the coast. I would be surprised if the coastal counties didn't actually factor tickets into their revenue projections.
PrairyErth will tell you so, so much: about the land, its history, its people past and present. "The Flint Hills are really chert, you know." "Like hell. I ain't livin' in no Chert Hills." The only issue is that the Flint Hills is more cattle country than grain-then-milo-or-soybean country, so you are seeing more the cattle side than the farm side--important, but not the be-all and end-all. Landowners and ranchers in the Flint Hills focus heavily upon the optimal ways to graze cattle for good short- and long-term pasture management, because the process produces hellaciously good beef. It takes a lot of land, though; I think on our ranch it's about 4 acres per head. And that's not a misprint. I've been told that by the time you reach eastern Colorado, it gets toward 60 acres per head.
You might want to take a look at the Moving and Relocation section here at City-Data to start with. Moving without a job means you'll need to have some serious savings to tide you until you find a job. It is also difficult to find a place to live unless you have a job especially in smaller towns, probably bigger ones also. Prepare a budget and ask yourself if you can live on minimum wage. Hays is nice but remote so I'm guessing you'll be surprised at how many things you can't get there and how much you have to pay for them. If you don't mind production/packaging work, Tony's Pizza hires quite often in Salina and there would be more opportunities there for everything compared to Hays. Yes, I have always liked Salina. Temp jobs in Salina would be another possibility. Manhattan can be really tough since you have competition from both the college students and the military spouses. Although I would avoid SE KS like the plague, cost of living there is low and there are jobs. There is an Amazon distribution center in Coffeyville which is in SE KS and they are usually hiring with a pay of about $10.00 an hour which is a good wage outside the larger cities in KS. We are in Emporia and there are jobs here, not great ones, but Hostess is expanding here and should be hiring some time in the future. They also have high turnover for production workers which they start out with through a temp agency. Temp agencies here hire quite a few people with wages ranging from minimum to Hostess which is around $11.00 an hour, I think. You'll see a lot of part-time jobs here and wages are depressed in some areas because of the number of illegal immigrants, Emporia being one area. If you are a minority, I would review racial stats available on the main page of C-D. I have lived in Wilson, Salina, Junction City, Manhattan, Emporia, and Fort Scott in KS dating back to the late 70's. I have had a real taste of KS, not the metro KS, the small town kind.
There is an organization called the Kansas Sampler Foundation who is mission is to sustain rural culture and the lifestyle in the state. It used to be based out of Inman Kansas and I would expect they will have a few publications as they have been around for many years. There is also a publication called the Kansas Traveler that might give you some perspective. The Kansas Historical Society will have some books too, check out their website and the Kansas department of labor should have some kind of detailed economic analysis and forecast on each region of the state.
I remembered that Manhattan does have a factory that produces windows. Again, the pay I think was $10.00 per hour at least a couple years ago. Also a good website to get an idea of what jobs are available would be: https://www.kansasworks.com/ada/ and "Find a Job" and Quick Search and check the box "plus jobs from other sites". You can search by zip, city or county. We lived in NC for 2 years and our older son is currently living there. Be ready for a "world" of difference. I do like the south as it has a "charm" and connection to the past that I don't think I've seen anywhere else. Here is a link for the Kansas Sampler that is mentioned above: https://www.kansassampler.org/
I generally looked at the history of the towns that we considered living in. I would also recommend looking at the types of churches that are in the area, how many, etc. if you have an interest one way or the other as that can have a lot to do with the social climate of the area.
Last edited by AnywhereElse; 05-14-2014 at 06:32 AM..
If you want to live in western Kansas you might consider Garden City. There are lots of retail opportunities along with a hospital, even a juco if you want to warm up to college by taking a class or two.
Oh good. lol
I'm obviously not the only one who keeps thinking, 'Hays is "western" Kansas??'
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Typically I read colums and stories from the web more so than books. But if you know something that is a must read, lay it on me. I still have to check out the first book you recommended. 
