Nearly 10 million trees were planted, but few survived, and the land reverted to homestead entry at the end of 1915. The largest lakes are Tuttle Creek and Milford, near Manhattan and Junction City. Many strip mines in southeastern Kansas have been turned into prime fishing lakes. The Arkansas is the longest river in the state. The Nemaha is the only river to flow north.
Many communities have exceptional displays during the holiday season.
A Plains Indian, Ysopete, was the guide who brought the first European explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, to Kansas in search of the fabled land of Quivira. Coronado entered the territory in 1541, passing the future sites of Liberal, Kismet, Meade, Fowler, Minneola, Bloom, and Kingsdown, and crossing the Arkansas River where the city of Ford stands today. He met the Quivira Indians in the Larned-Kinsley area. He passed Pawnee Rock and arrived at Wichita Indian villages near Lyons. He then crossed the Smoky Hill River and probably ended his expedition in the area of Lindsborg, near the Coronado overlook.