Kansas Tourist Attractions  

"Must See Tourist Attractions from in Kansas."

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The State of Kansas offers its visitors more than just tornadoes and small dogs. Known as the Wheat State, the Sunflower State, and the Jayhawker State. Famous for its flat landscape, it consists of carpets of billowing wheat fields, herds of grazing cattle, humming oil derricks, and towering grain storage elevators. Around each corner a piece of the Old West can be found in one of the novel landmarks or living history presentations. The raucous times of the Wild West are well depicted in Dodge City, settled by gunslingers, gamblers and cattlemen. Lawless times inspired people such as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson to take charge and clean up the area. The best of these times are reenacted at the annual Dodge City Days, complete with a rodeo. In the East part of the state, visit Atchison, the birthplace of the famous aviatrix Ameila Earhardt. Wichita, the largest city, is home to the Old Cowtown Museum, where one can step back into the time period of 1865-1880. The state capital of Kansas is the city of Topeka, with its pride being the Topeka Zoo.

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Northwest   Southwest   North Central   South Central   Northeast   Southeast   National Parks

Northwest

High Plains Museum - The High Plains Museum features outstanding exhibits and thought-provoking written explanations. They range from the Ice Age, Pioneer Life, the Depression, the Dust Bowl, Rainmakers, old office machines, filling station displays, a 1902 Holsman auto, six exceptional dioramas, and a replica of America's first patented helicopter.

Walter P. Chrysler Boyhood Home and Museum - The Founder of The Chrysler Corporation's Boyhood Home was built in 1889. The museum, located behind the home, is filled with many personal items that belonged to Chrysler. The shot gun he used duck hunting, jewelry, books, and photographs are just some of the personal artifacts on display.

Fick Fossil and History Museum - The Fick Fossil and History Museum features Cretaceous Period fossils from the personal collection of Earnest and Vi Fick. The museum also has many fossils found by the Sternbergs, who did extensive digs in the area. As part of its permanent collection, the museum has over 11,000 shark teeth, a complete Xiphactinus audux, specimens of Pteranodon, Plesiosaurus, Mosasaurs, and more.

Southwest

Boot Hill Museum - Explore the culture and history of the Old West in Dodge City's Boot Hill Museum. The Museum's exhibits are organized to explore the rich and diverse history of Dodge City and recreate the atmosphere of Dodge City of the late 1870s. Such exhibits as 'The Early Years' and 'Cattle, Wheat, and Storekeepers' help examine the real Dodge City and why it was so famous.

Lee Richardson Zoo - The Lee Richardson Zoo is considered by many to be the pride of Garden City. Located within the 110 acre Finnup Park, the zoo is a favorite gathering spot for some 250,000 visitors each year. Approximately 300 animals representing nearly 100 different species inhabit the 47 acre zoo.

North Central

Greyhound Hall of Fame - Located in Abilene, known as the Greyhound Capital of the nation, the Greyhound Hall of Fame offers the entire family a thorough and exciting introduction to the Greyhound, the sport, and its long and colorful history. The history of Greyhounds from 5,000 B.C., through its rich heritage in England and Ireland, to its racing development in America is presented in colorful displays.

Rolling Hills Refuge - Rolling Hills Refuge Wildlife Conservation Center is located on 145 acres of pristine Kansas prairie. The Refuge is home to more than 80 species of animals, housed in spacious, naturalistic habitat settings. Among the Refuge residents are many animals that are rare or endangered in the wild, including chimpanzees, leopards, orangutans, white tigers, and two species of rhinos.

Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad - A non-profit organization offering public excursion train rides May through October, private charters and school tours April through December and season dinner trains and railbus trips.

Brown Grand Theatre - Restored to its original 1907 splendor, the 650 seat Brown Grand Theatre now serves as a tourist attraction and performing arts / community center for Concordia and North Central Kansas. The theatre has two balconies, eight box seats, and features a grand drape, which is a reproduction of a Horace Vernet painting titled, 'Napoleon at Austerlitz.'

Beach Museum of Art - The Mission of the Museum of Art is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts among the University's students and faculty, the Manhattan community, and the citizens of the state and region. The Museum acquires, preserves, documents, interprets, and exhibits significant works of art, particularly those that reflect the cultural traditions of Mid-America.

Ottawa County Historical Museum - Official Boyhood Home of George Washington Carver. The museum features Pioneer, Native American and military artifacts. Exhibit about Gen. Custer, Sitting Bull, and local captives of Indians, dinosaur bones, Indian artifacts and more.

McPherson County Old Mill Museum - Standing tall on the banks of the Smoky Hill River, the Old Mill Museum preserves the early heritage of McPherson County, in particular, and other parts of central Kansas. The museum collects, preserves, researches, exhibits and interprets materials related to this heritage with special emphasis on the period from 1870 to 1910.

Garden of Eden - Samuel Perry Dinsmoor, a retired schoolteacher, Civil War Veteran, farmer and Populist politician, began building the Garden of Eden and Cabin Home in 1907 at the age of 64. For 22 years he fashioned 113 tons (2,273 sacks) of cement and many tons of limestone into his unique 'log' cabin with its surrounding sculptures.

Konza Prairie Biological Station - Konza is a 3,487 hectare native tallgrass prairie preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University and operated as a field research station by the K-State Division of Biology. The station is dedicated to a three-fold mission of long-term ecological research, education, and prairie conservation. Limited facilities for visitors are available.

Kansas Sports Hall of Fame - Preserving the history of sports for the state to serve as a source of education and inspiration to all generations. The mission is achieved through providing exhibits, archives, facilities, services and activities to honor those individuals and teams whose achievements in sports, have brought distinction to themselves, to their communities and to the state of Kansas.

Museum of Independent Telephony - The Museum is located in Abilene, Kansas, where C.L. Brown founded a small telephone company in 1899, known by the world today as Sprint. Showcased artifacts cover 140 years of telephone technology. Educational tours are available by appointment.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library & Museum - The Eisenhower Center is a five-building complex on 22 acres of land, located in Abilene, Kansas, the hometown of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Center features include a Museum, a Presidential Research Library, Eisenhower family home, and Place of Meditation where President and Mrs. Eisenhower are buried.

Sunset Zoo - Sunset Zoo sits on 52 acres which are home to 11 species protected under the Species Survival Plan as well as many other rare animals. The zoo feaures the largest outdoor chimpanzee exhibit in Kansas.

Salina Art Center - An exhibition gallery and art education center, the Salina Art Center also operates the Art Center Cinema.

South Central  

Kansas Oil Museum and Hall of Fame - The Kansas Oil Museum is the leading museum dedicated to the discovery and development of the oil industry in the state of Kansas. The museum celebrates the excitement associated with the development from the year 1860 to the present with particular emphasis on the El Dorado Field and its early history.

Coutts Memorial Museum of Art - The Coutts Memorial Museum of Art is a fine art gallery with over a thousand art objects by such artists as Renoir, Thomas Hart Benton, Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell.

Dyck Arboretum of the Plains - The Dyck Arboretum, a prairie garden, exists to educate people about the benefits of appreciating, preserving and utilizing native and adaptable plants. Trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowering perennials and annuals, native to Kansas are emphasized; also included are horticultural plants that are adaptable to the South Central Kansas environment.

Stockade Museum - The Stockade Museum in Medicine Lodge, Kansas is enclosed by a replica of an 1874 frontier stockade. Photographs, tools, documents, clothing and other artifacts present the history of Medicine Lodge and the surrounding area. Outside the stockade is Carry Nation's house. This woman's saloon smashing behavior brought her international fame and made her a part of Kansas history.

Kauffman Museum - Kauffman Museum is a tallgrass prairie reconstruction with over 15 species of grasses and more than 100 wildflower species. The museum is a historic farmstead with heritage flower and vegetable gardens around the 1875 Voth-Unruh-Fast House and the 1886 Ratzlaff Barn. Educational programming for the whole family and guided tours are also available.

Reno County Museum - Opened in 1986, the Museum houses five interpretive exhibit galleries with exhibits that change regularly, two hands-on children's galleries, a research library, an 1870s claim house, and gift shop.

Wichita Art Museum - The Wichita Art Museum is home to a nationally-renowned permanent collection of American art. It is a collection that is especially strong in art from 1900 to 1950. The Museum also offers a variety of programs, activities and events throughout the year.

Great Plains Nature Center - The Great Plains Nature Center (GPNC) is a new nature education facility located in northeast Wichita, Kansas. The Center provides opportunities to the public to learn about natural resources, especially the wildlife and plant species, of the Great Plains Region.

Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center - World-class space museum featuring the largest collection of U.S. space artifacts outside of the National Air and Space Museum and the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside of Moscow. The Cosmosphere's collections include the actual Apollo 13 command module 'Odyssey,' a flown Russian Vostok spacecraft, an SR-71 Blackbird and Chuck Yeager's flight jacket.

The Kansas Underground Salt Museum - The Kansas Underground Salt Museum will encompass more than 100,000 square feet of awe-inspiring space below ground. An above-ground Visitor Center will provide orientation and training for the subterranean experience, and guides will be on hand to assist guests through the facility.

Kansas Coliseum - The Kansas Coliseum is a showplace for South Central Kansas for concerts, shows and sporting events.

Ulrich Museum of Art - Since its founding in 1974, the museum has served as Wichita's premier venue for contemporary works by established and emerging artists of national and international significance. A lively schedule of provocative and challenging exhibitions is complemented by an important collection of 0th-century painting, sculpture, works on paper, and photography, as well as works by more contemporary, 21st-century artists. The museum also is known for its 70-piece outdoor sculpture collection.

Exploration Place - Four hands-on exhibit areas about flight; health and human life; people, places and environments of Kansas; and imaginative spaces for children. Plus three interactive theaters: Simulation Center – theater seats move with action on 17’ x 25’ screen; CyberDome Theater – take part in show using keypad mounted in theater seat armrest; Presentation Theater –  encounter new ways of thinking during original, live performances.

Marion Historical Museum - The museum displays a wide variety of artifacts, keepsakes and memorabilia that tell the story of this area. The first families who settled in Marion Centre were the Billings, Griffith, and Schreves. 23 people came in 5 covered wagons in 1860 to establish homes on this frontier. Pictures, Bibles, and family keepsakes from these courageous folk are featured collections.

Great Plains Transportation Museum - The GPTM displays a wide assortment of railroad equipment. Cabooses of the CB&Q, Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific and former Santa Fe can be toured during museum operating hours.

Kansas Aviation Museum - As museums are the life, the culture and the history of a community and its people, the Kansas Aviation Museum is a unique repository of our state's aviation heritage.

Lake Afton Observatory - The Lake Afton Public Observatory offers programs for the general public on weekend evenings throughout the year. The observatory offers a variety of exhibits and displays. You can make your own telescope, travel through the solar system on a scavenger hunt, or explore the properties of light. At other exhibits, you can see the universe in 3-D or touch a rock from space.

Kingman County Museum - The Kingman County Historical Museum is housed in the old Kingman City Building. The building is a rectangular two-story Renaissance style structure. There are two fire trucks on display, along with a hand drawn hose cart in the room that originally housed the horses for the Hook and Ladder Fire Department. Other displays consist of period furniture and a large mural.

Old Cowtown Museum - Old Cowtown Museum is a unique, 17 acre open-air living history museum which recreates Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas from 1865 to 1880.

Omnisphere & Science Center - The Omnisphere was founded in 1975 and is housed in the old Carnegie Library building that was built in 1915. The facility started with a planetarium and has evolved over the years to include hands-on science exhibits and live science demonstrations. This is a facility that encompasses a mix of education and entertainment for the whole family.  220 S. Main, Wichita.  (316) 337-9174.

Botanica-The Wichita Gardens - Enjoy themed gardens such as the Butterfly Garden, Shakespeare Garden, Rose and Wildflower Garden and the new Sensory Garden. Visit Botanica's Butterfly House and stroll among hundreds of free-flight butterflies.

Northeast  

Topeka Performing Arts Center - Topeka's newest facility designed to showcase the performing arts. Available for performances, rehearsals, meetings, and special events, the center provides the best in cultural entertainment. The wide variety of events includes touring Broadway shows, dance companies, major symphonies, popular singers and entertainers.

Wonderscope Children's Museum - Wonderscope Children's Museum, located in Shawnee (a Kansas City suburb) provides an enjoyable hands-on, interactive environment for children, their families, and school or community groups to explore science, technology, the arts, and humanities. Visitors are encouraged to make choices, invent, imagine, create, discover, play, and learn together.

Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens - The Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is located in the City of Overland Park on 300 ecologically diverse acres in southern Johnson County. The Arboretum and Botanical Gardens exists for the advancement of environmental education, recreation and the appreciation of nature. It provides both a cultural center and a nature preserve for the community.

U.S. Cavalry Association & Research Library - The US Cavalry Association is the proud sponsor of the U.S. Cavalry Museum, located at Fort Riley, Kansas. The U.S. Cavalry Museum is part of the Army Museum System and chronicles the colorful history of the American Mounted Horse Soldier from the Revolutionary War to 1950. The building that houses the Museum was once the headquarters used by General George Armstrong Custer.

Frontier Army Museum - The Museum exhibits material culture of Frontier Army soldiers who served west of the Mississippi River between 1804 and 1917. The museum collection of over five thousand items consists of weapons, uniforms, equipment, and vehicles used by Frontier Army soldiers as well as many Fort Leavenworth related items. The Museum is free and open to the public.

Topeka Zoological Park - The World Famous Topeka Zoo exhibits include: The Animals and Man Building, Tropical Rain Forest, Discovering Apes, Black Bear Woods, African Savannah, Birds of Prey, Water Bird Lagoons, Lions' Pride, and Children's Zoo.

Kansas State Capitol - Tour the Kansas State Capitol and learn the fascinating story of John Steuart Curry's murals. See the spectacular chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Gaze upward to view the marble and the glass panels of the dramatic Capitol dome.

Kansas Museum of History - The story of Kansas is full of drama. Colorful characters and everyday folks are part of the tale. So is the land itself, from the tall grass prairies to the high plains. The museum's exciting exhibits tell Kansas' story from its earliest peoples to today's residents.

Children's Museum of Kansas City - Hands-on activities offer fun learning experiences. Explore a museum that invites kids to 'Touch everything!' Exhibits are designed to stimulate the imagination and creativity of children ages two through eight and encourage all-age family interaction.

Topeka Civic Theatre - Enjoy dinner and a wonderful evening out at Topeka Civic Theater, Topeka's unique dinner theater. The Topeka Civic Theater is one of the oldest dinner theaters in the nation. The Civic Theater has won national and international acclaim as an award winning community theater. Whether it's a musical, comedy, or drama, you're sure to enjoy the wonderful performances.

Combat Air Museum - Much more than a collection of aircraft, Combat Air Museum houses a wide variety of military and aviation oriented memorabilia, ranging in time from the first World War to the space shuttle program.

University of Kansas Natural History Museum - Exhibits at the museum include: Fossils, naturalistic dioramas of birds, mammals, and plants, live bees (in a working hive), snakes, and fishes, the Panorama, the largest diorama display of its type, depicting animals, plants, and natural environments from the Arctic Circle to the tropics and more.

University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology - The purpose of the Museum of Anthropology is to foster an appreciation of the significance of the physical and cultural diversity of humanity through the creation, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge about peoples around the world from earliest times to the present.

Spencer Museum of Art - The Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art is the art museum of The University of Kansas, Lawrence. Seven galleries display selections from the permanent collection of over 17,000 works of art. Special exhibitions drawn from the collection or touring from other museums are displayed in four additional galleries.

Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum - Restored home where internationally-famous aviatrix was born July 24, 1897. Contains family heirlooms, displays, photographs and a gift shop.

Watkins Community Museum of History - The Watkins Community Museum of History is housed in an impressive red brick building in the city of Lawrence. Permanent exhibits include vehicles, a 1920s barber shop, a Victorian parlor, the restored lobby fixtures of the original bank, an 1878 children's playhouse, clothing, quilts and other needlework.

The Columbian Theatre - A beautifully renovated 19th century opera house which exhibits six rare, monumental oil paintings and other artifacts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the great Chicago World's Fair. The Columbian offers special exhibitions in the main floor gallery, a performing arts series in the theatre, and a unique gift shop.

Ward Meade Park - Historic Ward-Meade Park is a beautiful six-acre complex with a Victorian home, log cabin, turn-of-the-century town, plus a 2.5 acre botanical garden dedicated to preserving and sharing the early history of Topeka.

Southeast  

Emmett Kelly Museum - The Emmett Kelly Museum in downtown Sedan honors a native son, the famous clown Emmett Kelly (1898-1979) and his sad-faced character 'Willie'. It's located in the 1896 Opera House on Main Street. The collection includes memorabilia of his circus career as well as many items related to local history.

Scotty's Classic Cars - Free museum featuring antique and collector cars and memorabilia. The museum's memorabilia features a wide variety of items such as gas pumps, bicycles, pedal cars, neon, automotive collectibles and more. The gift shop contains NASCAR collectibles and 50s-60s reproduction.

Little House on the Prairie - The actual site of The Little House on the Prairie is today, as when Laura lived there with her family, a tranquil and beautiful open prairie setting surrounded by rustling prairie grasses and the stirrings of small prairie animals.

Emporia Zoo - The purpose of the Emporia Zoo is the creation of an environment which provides an opportunity of cultural enrichment for the community and surrounding area while fulfilling the Zoo's obligations to conservation, education and recreation. The zoo features naturalized exhibits, botanical displays, and a wide variety of animals.

Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum - The Johnson Exhibition tells the adventurous life story of Martin and Osa, highlighting their safaris and lasting contributions to documentary film making and wildlife research. Photographs, maps, native artifacts, a recreated safari camp, and personal memorabilia - ranging from Osa's Vaudeville dress to Martin's cameras - illustrate their travels.

National Parks

California National Historic Trail - The California Trail carried over 200,000 gold-seekers and farmers to the gold fields and rich farmlands of California during the 1840's and 1850's, the greatest mass migration in American history. Today, more than 1,000 miles of trail ruts and traces can still be seen in the vast undeveloped lands between Casper Wyoming and the West Coast, reminders of the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs of early American travelers and settlers.

Fort Larned National Historic Site - Fort Larned was established in 1859 as a base of military operations against hostile Indians of the Central Plains, to protect traffic along the Santa Fe Trail and as an agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861. With nine restored buildings, it survives as one of the best examples of Indian Wars period forts.

Fort Scott National Historic Site - The thirty-one year span of history interpreted at Fort Scott National Historic Site is perhaps the most significant era of our nation's history. Fort Scott witnessed a decade of rapid westward expansion in the 1840s followed by civil strife and unrest in the 1850s that brought about our nation's deadliest conflict-the Civil War.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve - The preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass ecosystem. Of the 400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie that once covered the North American Continent, less than 1 percent remains, primarily in the Flint Hills.

Nicodemus National Historic Site - This area preserves, protects and interprets the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. The town of Nicodemus is symbolic of the pioneer spirit of African-Americans who dared to leave the only region they had been familiar with to seek personal freedom and the opportunity to develop their talents and capabilities.

Oregon National Historic Trail - As the harbinger of America's westward expansion, the Oregon Trail was the pathway to the Pacific for fur traders, gold seekers, missionaries and others. Beginning in 1841 and continuing for more than 20 years, an estimated 300,000 emigrants followed this route from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon on a trip that took five months to complete.

Pony Express National Historic Trail - The Pony Express National Historic Trail was used by young men on fast paced horses to carry the nation's mail across the country, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, in the unprecedented time of only ten days. Organized by private entrepreneurs, the horse-and-rider relay system became the nation's most direct and practical means of east-west communications before the telegraph.

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