Topeka, Kansas

**Topeka** () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas. Topeka is the county seat of Shawnee County, and it is in the northeast part of the state. In 2020, 126,587 people lived there.

Topeka was established in 1854 when nine white men founded the Topeka Town Association. At an election in November 1861, the people of Kansas chose Topeka as the permanent capital of the state.

## Naming history

The name _Topeka_ is made up of three words from the Kaw, Omaha, and Iowa Native American tribes. The first, _to_, means "potato". The second, _pe_ (short for _pekae_) is an adjective meaning "good". The third, _okae_, means "to dig". Thus, the name _Topeka_ means "a good place to dig potatoes". The name was chosen because "[i]t was a novel name of Indian origin, euphonious [pleasing] of sound and simple".

## History and culture

Charles Sheldon and Charles Fox Parham, both important people in the history of American Christianity, were preachers in Topeka. Many historians believe that the modern Pentecostalism movement started in Monroe's church in 1901. Sheldon was a preacher in Topeka around the same time, who is famous for coming up with the phrase "What would Jesus do?"

_Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka_ was a lawsuit that went before the United States Supreme Court in 1954. Several families sued the public school board in Topeka for the right for black students to go to the same schools as white students. The Supreme Court decided that school districts could not make students go to different schools because of their race. Today, the government has a museum in Topeka about _Brown v. Board of Education_ and civil rights for African-Americans.

## Geography

Topeka is at , in north east Kansas. It is at the intersection of I-70 and U.S. Highway 75. It is the start of I-335 which is a part of the Kansas Turnpike running from Topeka to Emporia, Kansas. Topeka is also on U.S. Highway 24 (about 50 miles east of Manhattan, Kansas) and U.S. Highway 40 (about 30 miles west of Lawrence, Kansas). U.S.-40 is coincident with I-70 west from Topeka. The United States Census Bureau says that the city has a total area of . Of that,  is land and  is water.

### Weather

In 2007 Forbes Magazine saidd Topeka as one of the leading U.S. cities in terms of having the biggest changes in temperature, precipitation, and wind.
Topeka has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification _Dfa_). It has hot, somewhat humid summers and cool to cold, fairly dry winters. It is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6. Over the course of a year, the monthly daily average temperature ranges from  in January to  in July. The high temperature reaches  on average of 41.5 afternoons per year. The high reaches  an average of 3.5 afternoons per year. The low temperature falls below  on average of four mornings per year, and there are 21 afternoons per year that stay below freezing. The general time of year for freezing temperatures is October 15 through April 17.

The area gets about  of precipitation during an average year. The most being received in May and June—the April through June period averages 33 days of measurable precipitation. Generally, the spring and summer months have the most rainfall. Autumn and winter are fairly dry. During a typical year the total amount of precipitation may be anywhere from . Much of the rainfall is comes from thunderstorms. These can be very bad. They often have lightning, big hail, and sometimes tornadoes. Winter snowfall averages almost . Measurable (≥) snowfall occurs an average of 12.9 days per year, with at least one inch (0.025 metre) of snow being received on five of those days. Snow depth of at least an inch happens an average of 20 days per year.

### 2020 census

The 2020 census says that there were 126,587 people, 53,938 households, and 29,912 families living in Topeka. Of the households, 54.8% owned their home and 45.2% rented their home.

The median age was 38.3 years. Of the people, 68.4% were White, 10.4% were Black, 1.6% were Asian, 1.4% were Native American, 0.1% were Pacific Islanders, 6.1% were from some other race, and 11.9% were two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.4% of the people.

### 2010 census

The 2010 census says that there were 127,473 people, 53,943 households, and 30,707 families living in Topeka.

### Sports

|Club|Sport|League|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Kaw Valley FC|Soccer|USL League Two|
|Topeka Golden Giants|Baseball|Mid-Plains League|
|Topeka Pilots|Ice hockey|North American Hockey League|

### Cuisine

C W Porubsky's Deli & Tavern's chili "has been a lure to north Topeka since 1951". In 2014, _Travel + Leisure_ said it was one of America's Best Chilis.

### Print

The _Topeka Capital-Journal_ is a newspaper that is published every day. _The Topeka Metro News_ is a newspaper that is published twice per week. Both newspapers have online versions (The Topeka Metro News - Online Edition and CJOnline).

### Radio

The following radio stations are licensed to Topeka:

**AM**
|style="background:#fcc;"|**Frequency**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Callsign**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Format**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Notes**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|580|WIBW|News/Talk||||||
|1440|KMAJ|News/Talk||||||
|1490|KTOP|Sports||||||

**FM**
|style="background:#fcc;"|**Frequency**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Callsign**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Format**|style="background:#fcc;"|**Notes**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|88.1|KJTY|Contemporary Christian||||||
|89.5|K208FE|Christian|Translator of KAWZ, Twin Falls, Idaho|||||
|90.3|KBUZ|Christian|AFR|||||
|94.5|WIBW-FM|Country||||||
|99.3|KWIC|Classic Hits||||||
|100.3|KDVV|AOR||||||
|106.9|KTPK|Classic Country||||||
|107.7|KMAJ|Adult contemporary||||||

### Television

The following television stations are licensed to Topeka:

|style="background:#ccf;"|**Digital Channel**|style="background:#ccf;"|**Analog Channel**|style="background:#ccf;"|**Callsign**|style="background:#ccf;"|**Network**|style="background:#ccf;"|**Notes**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|11|11|KTWU|PBS|||||||
|13|13|WIBW-TV|CBS|||||||
|25|26|WROB-LD|TV25|||||||
|27|27|KSNT|NBC|||||||
||33|K33IC|TBN|||||||
|43|6|KTMJ-CD|FOX|||||||
|48; 49 <sup>(Virtual)</sup>|49|KTKA-TV|ABC|||||||

### Transportation

Greyhound Lines has buses going towards Denver, Colorado, eastward to Kansas City, Missouri, and southwest to Wichita, Kansas.

## Related pages

- Great Flood of 1951
- 1966 F5 tornado

## Other websites

- Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce
- Kansas State Historical Society
- Topeka City Map, KDOT

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Topeka, Kansas
- **settlement type**: List of capitals in the United States, State capital city
- **image flag**: Flag of Topeka, Kansas.svg
- **image map**: Shawnee County Kansas Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Topeka Highlighted.svg
- **map caption**: Location within Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County and Kansas
- **image map1**: Map of Shawnee Co, Ks, USA.png
- **map caption1**: Kansas Department of Transportation, KDOT map of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County (:File:Kansas official transportation map legend.png, legend)
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision name**: United States
- **subdivision type1**: U.S. state, State
- **subdivision name1**: Kansas
- **subdivision type2**: List of counties in Kansas, County
- **subdivision name2**: Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee
- **subdivision type3**: List of townships in Kansas, Township
- **established title**: Founded
- **established title1**: Platted
- **established title2**: Municipal corporation, Incorporated
- **government type**: Council-Manager
- **leader title**: Mayor
- **leader name**: Mike Padilla (Democratic Party (United States), D)
- **leader title1**: City Manager
- **leader name1**: Robert Perez
- **area total sq mi**: 62.76
- **area land sq mi**: 61.45
- **area water sq mi**: 1.31
- **area total km2**: 162.54
- **area land km2**: 159.15
- **area water km2**: 3.39
- **unit pref**: Imperial
- **elevation ft**: 938
- **population as of**: 2020 United States census, 2020
- **population total**: 126587
- **population density sq mi**: auto
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population rank**: US: List of United States cities by population, 222nd
KS: List of cities in Kansas, 5th
- **population urban**: 150003 (US: List of United States urban areas, 217th)
- **population metro**: 232670 (US: Metropolitan statistical area, 200th)
- **population demonym**: Topekan
- **timezone**: Central Time Zone, CST
- **utc offset**: -6
- **timezone dst**: CDT
- **utc offset dst**: -5
- **postal code type**: ZIP Codes
- **postal code**: 66601–66612, 66614–66622, 66624–66626, 66628–66629, 66636–66637, 66642, 66647, 66652–66653, 66667, 66675, 66683, 66692, 66699
- **area code type**: North American Numbering Plan, Area code
- **area code**: Area code 785, 785
- **blank name**: Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS code
- **blank info**: 20-71000
- **blank1 name**: Geographic Names Information System, GNIS ID
- **blank1 info**: 485655


## Infobox (ucr)

- **city name**: Topeka
- **year**: 2016
- **homicide**: 27
- **rape**: 56
- **robbery**: 269
- **aggravated assault**: 425
- **violent crime**: 777
- **burglary**: 1,001
- **larceny theft**: 4,725
- **motor vehicle theft**: 768
- **arson**: 11
- **property crime**: 6,494
- **source url**: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/kansas.xls
- **notes**: 2017 population: 126,624