Manhattan, Kansas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Manhattan |
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| Nickname: "The Little Apple" | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | United States of America |
| State | Kansas |
| Counties | Riley County Pottawatomie County |
| Settled | 1855 |
| Incorporated | May 30, 1857 |
| Government type | Commission-Manager |
| Mayor | Bruce Snead |
| City manager | Ron Fehr |
| Area | |
| - City | 38.9 km² (15.0 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 311 m (1020 ft) |
| Population | |
| - City (2005) | 49,462[1] |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP codes | 66502–66506 |
| Website: Official Manhattan website | |
Manhattan is a town located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the July 2005 census estimate, its population was 49,462. Manhattan is the county seat of Riley County. A small part of the town extends into Pottawatomie County.
Nicknamed The Little Apple in 1977 as a play on New York City's "Big Apple," it is most well-known for being the home of Kansas State University. Eight miles (13km) west of the town is Fort Riley, a United States Army post.
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[edit] History
Manhattan was settled in April 1855 by the abolitionist Isaac Goodnow [1] and other New England settlers, who traveled to Kansas Territory under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to found a Free-State town. It was originally named Boston. The new town incorporated two other small settlements already in the area, named Canton and Polistra. In June 1855 the steamboat Hartford, carrying 75 settlers from Ohio ran aground in the Kansas River near the settlement. The Hartford passengers accepted an invitation to join the new town, but insisted that it be renamed Manhattan, which was done on June 29, 1855. Manhattan was incorporated on May 30, 1857.
Early Manhattan settlers found themselves in conflict with Native Americans and the town itself was threatened by pro-slavery Southerners, but the proximity of Fort Riley protected the settlement from the major violence visited upon other Free State towns during the "Bleeding Kansas" era.
The young town received an early boost when gold was found in the Rocky Mountains in 1859 and Fifty-Niners began to stream through Manhattan on their way to prospect in the mountains. Manhattan was one of the last significant settlements on the route west, and the village's merchants did a brisk business selling supplies to miners.
At the same time, Manhattan was also becoming a center of education. In 1858, the Territorial Legislature chartered the private Methodist Bluemont Central College in Manhattan. In 1861, when the State of Kansas entered the Union, Isaac Goodnow, who had been a teacher in Rhode Island, began lobbying the legislature to establish a university in Manhattan. As an inducement, the Manhattanites offered to the state the physical plant of Bluemont Central College. The culmination of these efforts came on February 16, 1863, when the Kansas legislature established Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in Manhattan.
By the time the Kansas Pacific Railroad built its tracks west through Manhattan in 1866, the 11-year-old settlement was already permanently ensconced in the tallgrass prairie. Since its founding, Manhattan has increased in population every decade – in 1900, 3,438 people lived in Manhattan; in 1910, 5,722; and in 1940, 11,659.
[edit] Geography
Manhattan is located at (39.190142, -96.586818)GR1, or about 50 miles (80km) west of Topeka on the Kansas River.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 38.9 km² (15.0 mi²). 38.9 km² (15.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.07% is water.
[edit] Geographic features
Manhattan is located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, which consists of continuous rolling hills covered in tall grasses. However, the downtown area – the original center of Manhattan – was built on a broad, flat floodplain at the junction of the Kansas and Big Blue rivers.
Tuttle Creek Reservoir is a lake located 5 miles (8km) north of Manhattan. The lake was formed when Big Blue River was dammed by the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control in the 1960s, and it is now a state park, which offers many recreational opportunities. The Konza Prairie, a tallgrass prairie preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University, is south of town.
[edit] Demographics
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± |
| 1870 | 1,173 |
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| 1880 | 2,105 | 79.5% |
| 1890 | 3,004 | 42.7% |
| 1900 | 3,438 | 14.4% |
| 1910 | 5,722 | 66.4% |
| 1920 | 7,989 | 39.6% |
| 1930 | 10,136 | 26.9% |
| 1940 | 11,659 | 15.0% |
| 1950 | 19,056 | 63.4% |
| 1960 | 22,993 | 20.7% |
| 1970 | 27,575 | 19.9% |
| 1980 | 32,644 | 18.4% |
| 1990 | 37,712 | 15.5% |
| 2000 | 44,831 | 18.9% |
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 44,831 people, 16,949 households, and 8,254 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,152.4/km² (2,983.9/mi²). There were 17,690 housing units at an average density of 454.7/km² (1,177.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 87.28% White, 4.86% African American, 0.48% Native American, 3.93% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.30% from other races, and 2.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.49% of the population.
There were 16,949 households out of which 22.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.3% were non-families. 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.89.
The age distribution is 15.8% under the age of 18, 39.2% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 13.2% from 45 to 64, and 7.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 106.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.4 males. The general age distribution is typical of a university town; the sex distribution is not uncommon in areas dominated by major land-grant universities.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,463, and the median income for a family was $48,289. Males had a median income of $31,396 versus $24,611 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,566. About 8.7% of families and 24.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.1% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over. However, traditional poverty statistics can be misleading when applied to communities with large student populations, such as Manhattan.
[edit] Sites of interest
Visitors are drawn to Manhattan by Kansas State University sporting events, performing arts, lecture series, and the annual Country Stampede Music Festival – the largest music festival in Kansas.
The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art and the Kansas State University Gardens are located on the campus of Kansas State University. Next to campus is Aggieville, one of the oldest shopping and retail centers in the United States, with enough bars to satisfy the college crowd. Aggieville is also home to the longest continuously-operating Pizza Hut in the world.
Manhattan's Sunset Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Colbert Hills Golf Course, which is annually ranked by Golf Digest among the best in the state, is home to the Earl Woods National Youth Golf Academy and a host site for the First Tee program. Manhattan is also the birthplace of Damon Runyon, the "Inventor of Broadway," and his Manhattan house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The buildings which house The Flint Hills Job Corps Training Center east of town were once used as a nursing home and orphanage operated by the Fraternal Order of Odd Fellows.
The First Capital of the Kansas Territory is preserved nearby, on Fort Riley grounds.
[edit] Education
Manhattan is home to Kansas State University, Manhattan Christian College, Manhattan Area Technical College, the American Institute of Baking and The Flint Hills Job Corps Training Center.
Manhattan has one public high school with two campuses (Manhattan High School), two junior high schools (Susan B. Anthony and Dwight D. Eisenhower), and eight elementary schools (Amanda Arnold, Frank V. Bergman, Lee, Marlatt, Northview, Ogden, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson). The town also has two private school systems: Flint Hills Christian School and the Manhattan Catholic Schools.
[edit] Transportation
Manhattan Regional Airport is located 4 miles (6km) west of Manhattan on K-18. The airport is served by U.S. Airways Express. Manhattan has no internal mass transit system, and bus and train service to and from the town has been discontinued over the past several years.
[edit] Notable residents
- Louis Chaudet, film director, writer
- Del Close, comedian
- David Fairchild, botanist, explorer
- Philip Fox, astronomer
- James Harbord, military officer, businessman
- Lee Killough, author
- Mitsugi Ohno, glassblower
- Cassandra Peterson, actress (Elvira)
- Deb Richard, professional golfer
- Damon Runyon, author
- Fred Andrew Seaton, politician
- Bill Snyder, football coach
- Gary Spani, football hall-of-famer
- Walter J. Stoessel, diplomat
- Samuel Wendell Williston, scientist
- Earl Woods, father of Tiger Woods
See also Johnny Kaw, fictional Kansas settler
[edit] The town in popular culture
- In 1972, Glen Campbell recorded a #6 hit on the Country Music Charts with his song entitled "Manhattan, Kansas."
- The 1975 documentary Banjoman captures a legendary 1973 concert held in Manhattan in honor of Earl Scruggs. The concert includes performances by Joan Baez, David Bromberg, The Byrds, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Doc and Merle Watson.
- In the failed 1993 television pilot The Elvira Show, the plot revolves around Elvira moving to Manhattan with her talking cat.
- Manhattanite Brandon Bellinger was a contestant on the hit television show Survivor: Guatemala in 2005.
- Manhattanite Dave Spiker was a contestant on the CBS television show The Amazing Race 9 in 2006.
- Manhattan is a principal setting for the novel Was, by Geoff Ryman, a contemporary examination of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was recently made into a musical by theatre director Tina Landau. It premiered at Northwestern University through the New American Music Theatre Program.
- The eponymous character in The Little Sister, by Raymond Chandler, is from Manhattan.
- Jon Stewart once jokingly referred to it as "the Manhattan of values" on the Daily Show.
[edit] References
- Parrish, Donald (2004). This Land is Our Land: The Public Domain in the Vicinity of Riley County and Manhattan, Kansas. (ISBN 0-9677686-2-4)
- ^ Revision to 2005 Census Data. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- City of Manhattan websites
- Manhattan newspapers
- Other sites
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
