"The Flint Hills...can light my FIRE! " a Manhattan Travel Page by aphrodyte

In 1854 two settlements were established, Canton and Poleska. They soon consolidated under the name of Boston. When a large colony of new settlers arrived, the name was changed to Manhattan. Rumor has it that the founding fathers of our town wanted Manhattan to rival that of the one on the east coast. So, a second and larger group was persuaded and had the intentions of coming to our fair town. However, the riverboat they had occupied capsized and everyone perished.

Growing up here...in a town with a population of 45,000...all I wanted to do was split as soon as I got my first set of wheels. Bye, bye small ultra-conservative, k-state fanatics! And that's what I did.

Looking back, I didn't see the quiet, peaceful, (when there isn't a game going) tree lined neighborhoods, or how loyal a community is to the schools and programs that they believe in. I hadn't seen what my parents saw...a great town to raise your kids.

And of course...the PARTIES!
(I am a red-blooded American after all! *grin*)

So...when I can't stand living in a big metropolis...I come back here...refocus and go out like I'm on a mission!

Alma Mater

"I know a spot that I love full well, 'Tis not in forest nor yet in dell, ever it holds me with magic spell, I think of thee Alma Mater.

"KSU, we'll carry the banner high, KSU long, long may thy colors fly. Loyal you to thee thy children shall swell the cry.

"Hail, Hail, Hail Alma Mater."

Wildcat Victory

"Fight you K-State Wildcats. For Alma Mater fight-fight-fight.

"Glory into combat for the purple and white. Faithful to our colors, we shall ever be, fighting ever fighting for a Wildcat Victory!"

Manhattan has layers...

When settlers first moved to Kansas, many of them passed the Flint Hills by. They wanted good farmland, and the rocky soil was too hard to plow. Although the area is now used for grazing cattle, not much of the land has been plowed to grow crops, and the Flint Hills remain, for the most part, a natural prairie grassland. The Flint Hills region, is one of the few large areas of native prairie grassland left in the United States. The grassland that covers the Flint Hills looks much as it did 10,000 years ago.

Although the Flint Hills region is known for its rolling grasslands, it is named for flint, a type of rock that is found embedded in the limestone that forms the hills. Flint, also called chert, doesn't erode as easily as the softer limestone. When the limestone at the surface is eroded by wind and water, it eventually breaks down into soil. The exposed flint is broken down into gravel, which mixes with the soil and makes the ground rocky.