page_title: Topeka, Kansas
section_title: Points of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Topeka, Kansas / Arts and culture / Points of interest
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of Capitol building
context_page_description: Topeka is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 127,473. The Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Shawnee, Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, and Wabaunsee counties, had a population of 233,870 in the 2010 census.
  The name Topeka is a Kansa-Osage sentence that means "place where we dug potatoes", or "a good place to dig potatoes". As a placename, Topeka was first recorded in 1826 as the Kansa name for what is now called the Kansas River. Topeka's founders chose the name in 1855 because it "was novel, of Indian origin and euphonious of sound." The mixed-blood Kansa Native American, Joseph James, called Jojim, is credited with suggesting Topeka's name. The city, laid out in 1854, was one of the Free-State towns founded by Eastern antislavery men immediately after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Bill. In 1857, Topeka was chartered as a city.
  The city is well known for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which overturned Plessy vs.
context_section_description: Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
  Evel Knievel Museum
  Kansas Children's Discovery Center in Gage Park
  Kansas State Capitol, with murals by John Steuart Curry, including the portrait of John Brown towering over "Bleeding Kansas" and the Kansas prairie, and topped with the sculpture of a native warrior named Ad Astra (from the state motto Ad Astra per Aspera, meaning "To the Stars Through Difficulty".)
  Kansas Expocentre and Landon Arena
  Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field
  Heartland Park Topeka, a major drag racing and road racing course just south of the city.
  Kansas Museum of History
  Reinisch Rose Garden and Doran Rock Garden, both parts of Gage Park.
  Topeka High School
  Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
  Topeka Zoo, famous as the birthplace of the first golden eagle chick hatched in captivity and as the first zoo in the nation to have an indoor rain forest.
  Old Prairie Town at Ward-Meade Historic Site
  Washburn University, the last city-chartered university in the United States.
  Westboro Neighborhood
  Potwin Neighborhood, originally its own town, Potwin has now been surrounded by the City of Topeka, though it maintains its own mayor and traditions, including the Easter brunch and Fourth of July Parade.
  Kansas Judicial Center, where both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the state sit.
  Cedar Crest, the Kansas Governor's Mansion on a hilltop overlooking the massive MacLennan Park.
  Great Overland Station, home of the Kansas Hall of Fame.
  The Upstage Gallery
caption: Abraham Lincoln statue in Topeka park
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