Kansas, Oklahoma - Demographics - How Kansas Got Its Name

How Kansas Got Its Name

Legend has it that a man of small stature who came to nearby Siloam Springs, Arkansas, by train from Kansas City, Kansas, rented a hack and stocked it with light household goods, pots and pans, bolts of cloth, sewing machine parts and needles, etc. He drove out into Indian Territory and stopped at the farm homes along the way. When in the Kansas area, he always camped out at the spring on Spring Creek just under the hill just south and west of the present town site and south of the present Scenic U.S. 412. Because the Indians in the area could not pronounce his name, everybody just called him Little Kansas City. Thus, the town of Kansas was named for this unknown, but well remembered man. He may have been the first merchant in what is now Kansas, and the town is called "Little Kansas" by many of its residents.