The US state of Kansas is situated within the Midwestern area of the US. Kansas got is name from the Kansas River, that flows through the state. The Kansas River was named after the Native American tribe that inhabited the region, called the Kansa. The tribe's name is normally said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," even if this was most likely not the term's original meaning. People of the state of Kansas are known as "Kansans."
The state of Kansas was home to several Native American tribes for thousands of years. The tribes residing within the eastern region of the state resided primarily along the valleys and banks of the river. The tribes living in the Western part of the state were more nomadic living off the herds of bison. Kansas was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery problem. When officially opened to settlement by the United States government in the year 1854, pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri and abolitionist Free-Staters from New England hurried to the territory to find out if Kansas will become a slave state or a free state. Therefore, the region was a hotbed of violence and chaos during its early days as these forces collided, and was called Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists ultimately prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of the state of Kansas grew fast, when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. At present, Kansas is among the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of sorghum, sunflowers and wheat.
The main agricultural production of Kansas comprises wheat, cattle, sheep, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, hogs, corn, and salt. The Grain Belt within Eastern Kansas, is a huge grain production region. The industrial outputs are private and commercial aircrafts, transportation equipment, publishing, food processing, chemical products, machinery, mining, apparel and petroleum.
The state of Kansas ranks 8th in the country in oil production. There has been a steady natural decline of oil production because of the difficulty to extract oil over time. Ever since oil prices bottomed during the year 1999, oil production within the state of Kansas has remained somewhat constant, with an average monthly rate of approximately 2.8 million barrels during the year 2004. The recent higher prices have made carbon dioxide sequestration and other oil recovery techniques more economical.
The state of Kansas also ranks 8th in natural gas production, even if production has declined since the 90's. This is largely because of the gradual depletion of the Hugoton Natural Gas Field, which is the biggest natural gas field within the state. During the year 2004, increased coalbed methane production and slower declines in the Hugoton gas fields contributed to a smaller overall decline.
The economy of the state is dependent upon the aerospace industry, because the state has several huge aircraft manufacturing facilities within Wichita and Kansas City, like for instance Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing, Cessna, Learjet, and Hawker Beechcraft (previously Raytheon). Many of these major businesses have their head office within Kansas, like for example: Embarq, the Sprint Nextel Corporation, Garmin, YRC Worldwide, Payless Shoes, and Koch Industries.