Plane geometry
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
KANSAS stands out on the United States map.
When TV meteorologists forecast the national weather, our eyes are drawn to the state that is smack dab in the center of the screen.
But to some coastal folks, especially those who will never wander to the middle of the country, Kansas is indistinguishable; it’s merely “one of those rectangular states.”
Believe it or not, some people can’t tell Kansas from Nebraska.
Like those sibling states above us, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Kansas has a basic rectangular shape. And, like our northern neighbors, we don’t mind living in a boxy world.
When the puzzle pieces fall out of the map, it’s easy to recognize Kansas: three 90-degree corners and one minor mishap — the Missouri River cuts a squiggly chunk out of our northeast corner and awards it to the state of Missouri.
Kansas is roughly 400 miles wide and 200 miles from north to south.
Before statehood, we didn’t have the same shape. In the 1850s, the Kansas Territory came equipped with a panhandle.
Back then, Kansas stretched all the way to Denver. That city was named for James Denver who served as Kansas Territorial Governor in 1858.
If we had kept that chunk of western real estate, Mount Sunflower (elevation 4,039 feet) would not be Kansas’ highest point.
With the exception of some rolling hills and a few odd-shaped rock formations, Kansas was a smooth plane of endless grass.
Kansas must have looked like a huge sheet cake to the European settlers who couldn’t wait to cut it into little square pieces. As the Santa Fe Railroad was built, the land was divided among homesteaders.
Using the horizon as a template, the lines of Kansas were drawn.
Most of our 105 counties are in the shape of parallelograms. Inside those counties are townships and most of those townships are square or rectangular as well.
The Kansas map is full of right angles and straight lines. As you drive west, the lines (and roads) become straighter and the squares become more obvious.
Where I grew up, in the center of the state, a curve in the road was an event.
My cousin Dave, who used to be an over-the-road truck driver, once remarked, “Kansas is a dream to drive in; you don’t even have to aim.”
Most roads in Kansas are of the east-west or north-south variety.
But, in order to travel, say, in a southeasterly direction, one would need to turn left, then right, left, then right, similar to the jagged moves a child makes on an Etch-A-Sketch.
One road that wasn’t constructed on the axis is U.S. Highway 56, which follows the old Santa Fe Trail. The section of U.S. 56 that passes through Pawnee Rock is on a diagonal.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and sometimes that straight line is a diagonal road, which of course, runs catty-wampus to the grid.
With the exception of U.S. 56, which cuts through Pawnee Rock like a broken arm, I was raised with the grid and its dependable mile roads. If you are given directions to travel five miles north, there’s no need to watch the odometer, you just count crossroads.
Intersections show up, as expected, at each and every mile.
So, if you’re fond of rectangles and squares and straight lines, this is a happy place to be; Kansas has more right angles than a geometry book.
The layout of Kansas gives us a solid base to work from. It provides an underlying structure to our lives.
When the events of the world seem a little chaotic, we can drive through the flat land of Kansas and take comfort in its predictable order.
It’s all geometry, plane and simple.
Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
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