Garden City got its name from the beautiful garden of Mrs. W.D. Fulton in 1878. The population is about 25,000 people. Garden City hosts an annual rodeo, The Beef Empire Days PRCA Rodeo. This rodeo continues to improve and draw top cowboys in the circuit. The rodeo currently is ranked second in the state of Kansas and number 61 in the nation.
Garden City has several eating and shopping venues.
Liberal is located in the southwest corner of Kansas, in Seward county. The area was occupied by the Plains Apache Indians, the Kiowa, the Cheyenne, the Commanche, and the Arapaho Indians. Congress designated the area including present-day Liberal and the surrounding areas, as Indian Territory in 1830, and until 1872 western Kansas was practically uninhabited. Settlement came to the area only after the railroads came through. Ladies have been racing through the streets of the two cities while flipping a pancake in a skillet each year since 1950.