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Symbols of Kansas links
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The Barred Tiger
Salamander (Ambystoma
tigrinum mavortium) was designated
as the official state AMPHIBIAN
by the State Legislature in 1994,
following a campaign by Kansas school
children. According to the enabling
legislature, the barred tiger salamander
is "a strikingly marked species,
with a robust body, and living in a range
from the humid tallgrass prairie of
eastern Kansas to the arid high plains at
the western border ... ." |
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The American
Buffalo (Bison bison)
was designated as the official state ANIMAL
by the State Legislature in 1955. |
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The Western
Meadow Lark (Sturnella
neglecta) was designated as the
official state BIRD by
the State Legislature in 1937, following
a vote of Kansas school children. |
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The
Kansas State FLAG,
adopted by the Kansas Legislature as the
official state flag on March 21, 1927, is
a rectangle of dark-blue silk with the
state seal
at its center. Above the seal is the
state crest, a sunflower resting on a
twisted bar of blue and gold. The word
"Kansas," added in 1961, is
below the seal in gold, block lettering. The flag was first displayed in
1927 at Fort Riley by Governor Ben Paulen
in the presence of troops from Fort Riley
and the Kansas National Guard.
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The Sunflower
was designated as the official state FLOWER
by the State Legislature in 1903. The
enabling legislation states: "...
Kansas has a native wild flower common
throughout her boarders, hardy and
conspicuous, of definite, unvarying and
striking shape, easily sketched, moulded,
and carved, having armorial capacities,
ideally adapted for artistic
reproduction, with its strong, distinct
disk and its golden circle of clear
glowing rays a flower that a child can
draw on a slate, a woman can work in
silk, or a man can carve on stone or
fashion in clay; and ... This flower has
to all Kansans a historic symbolism which
speaks of frontier days, winding trails,
pathless prairies, and is full of the
life and glory of the past, the pride of
the present, and richly emblematic of the
majesty of a golden future, and is a
flower which has given Kansas the
world-wide name, "the sunflower
state" ... ." |
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The Honeybee
was designated as the official state INSECT
by the State Legislature in 1976. |
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The State Legislature
recognizes both The Kansas
March (by Duff E.
Middleton) and Here's Kansas
as the official state MARCHES. |
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Home on
the Range, by Brewster
Higley, was adopted as the official
state SONG by the State
Legislature in 1947. |
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The Ornate Box Turtle
(Terrapene ornata) was
designated as the official state REPTILE
by the State Legislature in 1986,
following a campaign by Kansas school
children. |
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The
Great SEAL of the State
of Kansas was established by a joint
resolution adopted by the Kansas
Legislature on May 25, 1861. The seal
is described in the resolution as
follows:
"The east is represented by a
rising sun, in the right-hand corner of
the seal; to the left of it, commerce is
represented by a river and a steamboat;
in the foreground, agriculture is
represented as the basis of the future
prosperity of the state, by a settler's
cabin and a man plowing with a pair of
horses; beyond this is a train of
ox-wagons, going west; in the background
is seen a herd of buffalo, retreating,
pursued by two Indians, on horseback;
around the top is the motto, 'Ad astra
per aspera,' and beneath a cluster of
thirty-four stars. The circle is
surrounded by the words, 'Great seal of
the state of Kansas. January 29,
1861.'"
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The Cottonwood
was designated as the official state TREE
by the State Legislature in 1937. |
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