Central Kansas Railway
The Central Kansas Railway was a short-line railroad operating 900 miles of trackage in the U. S. state of west to Scott City, Kansas. All trackage was former Atchison and Santa Fe Railway branchlines in Kansas & northern Oklahoma; the Kansas Southwestern Railway, a sister company which operated former Missouri Pacific Railroad branchlines in Kansas, was merged into the CKR in 2000. Owned by Omnitrax, CKR's main business was from the Kansas wheat harvests, as well as other traffic; the Watco Companies of Pittsburg, Kansas purchased all of the CKR's lines on May 31, 2001 and formed the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Media related to Central Kansas Railway at Wikimedia Commons
Hillsboro, Kansas
Hillsboro is a city in Marion County, United States. Hillsboro was named after John Gillespie Hill, who homesteaded in the area in 1871; as of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,993. Hillsboro is home of Tabor College, which had 766 students enrolled in Fall 2014. For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre. In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U. S. state. In 1855, Marion County was established within the Kansas Territory, which included the land for modern day Hillsboro.
Hillsboro was named after John Gillespie Hill, who homesteaded in the area in 1871. Hill City was the city name. A post office was established in Risley on April 10, 1873 moved to Hillsboro on August 29, 1879; the Hillsboro area was settled by Russian Mennonites of German extraction beginning in 1874. These settlers brought with them Turkey Red Hard winter wheat, related wheat varies are still grown throughout the Great Plains today. Today, the Mennonite Settlement Museum remains to demonstrate the lives of these early settlers; as early as 1875, city leaders of Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from Florence. In 1878, Atchison and Santa Fe Railway and parties from Marion County and McPherson County chartered the Marion and McPherson Railway Company. In 1879, a branch line was built from Florence to McPherson, in 1880 it was extended to Lyons, in 1881 it was extended to Ellinwood; the line was leased and operated by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to Marion, was abandoned in 1968.
In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to Central Kansas Railway. In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion through Hillsboro to McPherson was abandoned and removed; the original branch line connected Florence, Canada, Lehigh, Galva, McPherson, Windom, Little River, Lyons, Ellinwood. In 1908, Tabor College was founded by members of the Mennonite Brethren and Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Christian churches; the National Old Trails Road known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, was routed through Lehigh, Marion, Lost Springs. Hillsboro is located at 38°21′5″N 97°12′9″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.57 square miles, of which, 2.56 square miles is land and 0.01 square miles is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Hillsboro has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair Hillsboro Farmer's Market Marion County Fair Annual Easter egg hunt Hillsboro has two buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
W. F. Schaeffler House Museum, 312 East Grand Ave. Mennonite Settlement Museums, 501 South Ash Street. Main museum on Memorial Drive.1876 P. P. Loewen House. Known as the Pioneer Adobe House. A traditional Russian clay brick house from the Mennonite settlement village of Hoffnungsthal; the last remaining house of its kind in North America. Jacob Friesen Flouring Wind Mill is a detailed replica of the 1876 mill that stood in the Mennonite settlement village of Gnadenau. 1886 Kreutziger School No. 97 was in service from 1886 to 1960 5 miles north of Canada, Kansas. Marion Reservoir, north-east of Hillsboro, exits closest to farther from Hillsboro along US-56: French Creek cove, Hillsboro cove and Dam, Marion cove and Cottonwood Point cove; as of the census of 2010, there were 2,993 people, 1,071 households, 684 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,169.1 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,193 housing units at an average density of 466.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 94.6% White, 1.7% African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.9% from other races, 2.1% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.2% of the population. There were 1,071 households of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.6% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.0% had a male householder with no wife present, 36.1% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.8% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.86. The median age in the city was 36.2 years. 19.8% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the city was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,854 people, 1,086 households, 710 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,435.8 people per square mile. There were 1,209 housing units at an average density of 608.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the
Time in the United States
Time in the United States, by law, is divided into nine standard time zones covering the states and its possessions, with most of the United States observing daylight saving time for the spring and fall months. The time zone boundaries and DST observance are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Official and precise timekeeping services are provided by two federal agencies: the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the clocks run by these services are kept synchronized with each other as well as with those of other international timekeeping organizations. It is the combination of the time zone and daylight saving rules, along with the timekeeping services, which determines the legal civil time for any U. S. location at any moment. Before the adoption of four standard time zones for the continental United States, many towns and cities set their clocks to noon when the sun passed their local meridian, pre-corrected for the equation of time on the date of observation, to form local mean solar time.
Noon occurred at different times but time differences between distant locations were noticeable prior to the 19th century because of long travel times and the lack of long-distance instant communications prior to the development of the telegraph. The use of local solar time became awkward as railways and telecommunications improved. American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s; each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a serious problem for people traveling by train, according to the Library of Congress; every city in the United States used a different time standard so there were more than 300 local sun times to choose from. Time zones were therefore a compromise, relaxing the complex geographic dependence while still allowing local time to be approximate with mean solar time. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, but this was only a partial solution to the problem.
Weather service chief Cleveland Abbe had needed to introduce four standard time zones for his weather stations, an idea which he offered to the railroads. Operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced at noon on November 18, 1883, when the telegraph lines transmitted time signals to all major cities. In October 1884, the International Meridian Conference at Washington DC adopted a proposal which stated that the prime meridian for longitude and timekeeping should be one that passes through the centre of the transit instrument at the Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom; the conference therefore established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian and Greenwich Mean Time as the world's time standard. The US time-zone system grew from this, in which all zones referred back to GMT on the prime meridian. In 1960, the International Radio Consultative Committee formalized the concept of Coordinated Universal Time, which became the new international civil time standard.
UTC is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0°. UTC does not observe daylight saving time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, but GMT is no longer defined by the scientific community. UTC is one of several related successors to GMT. Standard time zones in the United States are defined at the federal level by law 15 USC §260; the federal law establishes the transition dates and times at which daylight saving time occurs, if observed. It is the authority of the Secretary of Transportation, in coordination with the states, to determine which regions will observe which of the standard time zones and if they will observe daylight saving time; as of August 9, 2007, the standard time zones are defined in terms of hourly offsets from UTC. Prior to this they were based upon the mean solar time at several meridians 15° apart west of Greenwich. Only the full-time zone names listed below are official. View the standard time zone boundaries here; the United States uses nine standard time zones.
As defined by US law they are: From east to west, the four time zones of the contiguous United States are: Eastern Time Zone, which comprises the states on the Atlantic coast and the eastern two thirds of the Ohio Valley. Central Time Zone, which comprises the Gulf Coast, Mississippi Valley, most of the Great Plains. Mountain Time Zone, which comprises the states and portions of states that include the Rocky Mountains and the western quarter of the Great Plains. Pacific Time Zone, which comprises the states on the Pacific coast, plus Nevada and the Idaho panhandle. Alaska Time Zone, which comprises most of the state of Alaska. Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone, which includes Hawaii and most of the length of the Aleutian Islands chain. Samoa Time Zone, which comprises American Samoa. Chamorro Time Zone, which comprises Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Atlantic Time Zone, which comprises Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; some United States Minor Outlying Islands are outside the time zones defined by 15 U.
S. C. § exist in waters defined by Nautical time. In practice, military crews may
Florence, Kansas
Florence is a city in Marion County, United States. The city was named after the daughter of the third Governor of Kansas Samuel J. Crawford; as of the 2010 census, the city population was 465. For millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans; these tribes considered native included: the Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa, Osage and Wichita. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre. In 1806, Zebulon Pike led the Pike expedition westward from St Louis, Missouri, of which part of their journey followed the Cottonwood River through Marion County near the current cities of Florence, Durham.
In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U. S. state. In 1855, Marion County was established within the Kansas Territory, which included the land for modern day Florence; the first settlers in Marion County located near the present site of Florence. They were Moses Shane, who came in 1858, whose death the next year was the first in the county. A post office existed in Doyle from November 26, 1866 to March 13, 1871; the Florence Town Company was a group of men who learned of the proposed route of the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway, extended from Emporia, who decided on a town site where the railroad would cross the Cottonwood River. In September 23, 1870, there was announcement in The Emporia News about a new town named "Florence" at the mouth of Doyle Creek; the Florence Town Company was formed on December 1870 with Samuel J. Crawford as the president. Crawford was the 3rd Governor of Kansas from 1865 to 1868, he named Florence, in honor of his daughter, Miss Florence Crawford of Topeka.
The post office moved from Doyle to Florence on March 13, 1871. In 1871, the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway extended a main line from Emporia through Florence to Newton. In 1996, it renamed to the current BNSF Railway; the Santa Fe depot building still has been closed for decades. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Santa Fe". In 1877, the Florence, El Dorado, Walnut Valley Railroad Company built a branch line from Florence to El Dorado, in 1881 it was extended to Douglass, to Arkansas City; the line was leased and operated by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to El Dorado was abandoned in 1942; the original branch line connected Florence, Burns, De Graff, El Dorado, Douglass, Akron, Arkansas City. As early as 1875, city leaders of Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from Florence. In 1878, the Marion and McPherson Railway Company was chartered. In 1879, a branch line was built from Florence to McPherson, in 1880 it was extended to Lyons, in 1881 it was extended to Ellinwood.
The line was leased and operated by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to Marion, was abandoned in 1968. In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to Central Kansas Railway. In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion to McPherson was abandoned; the original branch line connected Florence, Canada, Lehigh, Galva, McPherson, Windom, Little River, Lyons, Ellinwood. In 1877, Fred Harvey, an entrepreneur, credited with establishing the first restaurant chain in the United States, bought the Clifton Hotel near the Florence railroad station for $5,370. Harvey redecorated the hotel and early in 1878, the second Harvey House Restaurant opened in Florence - the first Harvey House to offer sleeping rooms in addition to a restaurant. There have been numerous floods during the early history of Florence. In June and July 1951, due to heavy rains and streams flooded numerous cities in Kansas, including Florence. Many reservoirs and levees were built in Kansas as part of a response to the Great Flood of 1951.
From 1964 to 1968, the Marion Reservoir was constructed north-west of Marion. Downstream from the Marion Reservoir, levees were built in low-lying areas of Florence. Florence is located at 38°14′34″N 96°55′46″W, in the scenic Flint Hills of the Great Plains. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.77 square miles, all land. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Florence has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. Florence Labor Day Celebration, 76th annual in 2013. Florence High School Alumni Banquet, 117th annual in 2013, Memorial Day Weekend Harvey House Picnic, 15th annual in June 2013. Tour de Florence, mountain bike tour of the Flint Hills area around Florence, held in October. Florence Farmers Market, Moses Shane Memorial Park, May through September, Tuesday 5:30PM to 7:30PM. Florence has five buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1876 Harvey House, 221 North Marion Street. Part of the first Fred Harvey House, of the Fred Harvey Company, which stood south of the Santa Fe railroad tracks until the early 1900s; the existing structure was the original
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Marion County, Kansas
Marion County is a county located in the U. S. state of Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 12,660; the county seat is Marion. The county was named in honor of Francis Marion, a Brigadier General of the American Revolutionary War, known as the "Swamp Fox". For millennia, the Great Plains of North America were inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. From the 16th to 18th centuries, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, by the Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre. In 1848, after the Mexican–American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Spain brought into the United States all or part of land for ten future states, including southwest Kansas. In 1806, Zebulon Pike led the Pike expedition westward from St Louis, Missouri, of which part of their journey followed the Cottonwood River through modern Marion County near the current cities of Florence, Durham.
In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U. S. state. In 1855, Marion County was established; the first settlers in Marion County located near the present site of Florence. They were Moses Shane, who came in 1858, whose death the next year was the first in the county; the city of Marion Centre was founded in 1860, became the county seat in 1865, the city name was shortened to Marion. From 1821 to 1866, the Santa Fe Trail was active across Marion County. In the spring of 1859, a trading post was established at the "Lost Spring" on the Santa Fe Trail, in the autumn of the same year, the Moore brothers established a ranch near the present site of Durham, the first post office was established at this place. In the same year, a post office was established at "Lost Spring" near the current city of Lost Springs; the nearest post office was Emporia. From 1867 to 1871, the Chisholm Trail was routed along the western edge of Marion County; the trail ended in Abilene, Kansas where cattle were shipped eastward by rail.
As the railroads were built westward and southward, the trail was truncated from going further north. Marion County covered more than a third of the area of Kansas, including all the territory in the state south and west of the present northern and eastern lines of the county; the original location of the county was fixed by legislative act in 1860. It comprised less than the present area; the original boundaries were altered by an increase of territory on the west and a decrease on the south. In 1863, the legislature by special act fixed the boundaries to include all of southwestern Kansas. In June of that year, on petition of the citizens of the county, the governor restored the previous boundaries and ordered a separate organization of the county; the south-eastern border one mile "notch" with Chase County was established under unusual circumstances. A murder had occurred and Marion County didn't want to have the trial, so a section one mile wide and eighteen miles long was ceded to Chase County to ensure the murder had occurred there.
The one mile strip of land remains in Chase County to this day. The present county boundary lines contain twenty-four townships; the first two-story courthouse of stone was built in 1867. The upper floor was used for county court and the first floor was used as a school. A high wall for a place of refuge and defense in the event of an Indian attack surrounded it, but it was never needed for that purpose. An addition was completed in 1879 and part of the original structure was remodeled in 1881; the present three-story native limestone structure was completed in 1907. The state of Kansas granted the Atchison and Topeka Railroad three million acres of land if it would build a continuous line to the western border of the state within ten years. In 1871, the railroad pushed westward from Emporia through Florence and Peabody towards Newton, got title to the land in 1873. According to the original land grant, the railroad was to receive every odd numbered section for ten miles on each side of its track, but in eastern Kansas, pretty well settled, much of this land wasn't available.
The law therefore gave the railroad. This worked out to be half the land on a strip twenty miles on each side of its track from Emporia nearly out to Kinsley, which meant that most of Marion County fell in this strip. In 1877, the Florence, El Dorado, Walnut Valley Railroad Company built a branch line from Florence to El Dorado, in 1881 it was extended to Douglass, to Arkansas City; the line was leased and operated by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to El Dorado was abandoned in 1942; the original branch line connected Florence, Burns, De Graff, El Dorado, Douglass, Akron, Arkansas City. In 1887, Atchison and Santa Fe Railway built a branch line from Neva to Superior, Nebraska; this branch line connected Strong City, Rockland, Diamond Springs, Lost Springs, Hope, Enterprise, Talmage, Longford, Oak Hill, Aurora, Concordia, Courtland, Superior. At some point, th
McPherson, Kansas
McPherson is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, United States, in the central part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 13,155; the city is named after a Civil War general. It is home to Central Christian College. For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U. S. state. In 1867, McPherson County was founded. McPherson was founded in 1872 by the twelve members of the McPherson Town Company. In 1887, city officials began a failed attempt to have the community named the state capital; the first post office in McPherson was established in 1873. McPherson was incorporated as a city in 1874; as early as 1875, city leaders of Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from Florence. In 1878, Atchison and Santa Fe Railway and parties from Marion County and McPherson County chartered the Marion and McPherson Railway Company.
In 1879, a branch line was built from Florence to McPherson. In 1880 it was extended to Lyons and in 1881 it was extended to Ellinwood; the line was leased and operated by the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to Marion, was abandoned in 1968. In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to Central Kansas Railway. In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion to McPherson was abandoned; the original branch line connected Florence, Canada, Lehigh, Galva, McPherson, Windom, Little River, Lyons, Ellinwood. In 1887, the Chicago and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Herington through McPherson to Pratt. In 1888, this line was extended to Liberal, it was extended to Tucumcari, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. It foreclosed in 1891 and taken over by Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut down in 1980 and reorganized as Oklahoma and Texas Railroad, merged in 1988 with Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged in 1997 with Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island".
By 1888, the community was at the junction of four railroad lines. Major industries have included a large flour mill, an insurance company headquarters, an oil refinery; the National Old Trails Road known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, was routed through Windom, Conway and McPherson. In the 1930s, the local refinery sponsored the McPherson Globe Refiners basketball team, they were coached by former head coach of Wichita University. The Refiners were best known for their tall centers, Joe Fortenberry and Willard Schmidt and their fast-break style of play. Billed as "The Tallest Team in the World", the Refiners held their opponents to low scores because of the centers' ability to deflect shots on the way to the basket in what today would be called goaltending. Coach Johnson was one of the innovators of full-court press; the Refiners won the AAU national championship in 1936 against the Hollywood Universal team. This earned them the right to compete for the first USA Olympic basketball team in 1936.
Hollywood Universal narrowly beat the Refiners at Madison Square Garden and the USA team was composed of both Universal and Refiners players and one college student. Coach Johnson was selected to be the assistant coach. After a long journey by boat to Europe, the team played in alternating squads at the Olympics; the Refiners' portion of the team took the court to defeat Canada 19-8 in the gold medal game on August 14, 1936 at the Summer Olympics. The Refiners' home court is now the McPherson Community Building at 121 East Marlin and can be toured by contacting the local Convention and Visitors Bureau. A mural in honor of the Refiners was completed in 2010 at the intersection of Kansas and Ash, south of their home court in preparation for the 75th anniversary celebration of their victory in 2011. McPherson is located at 38°22′19″N 97°39′44″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.23 square miles, of which 7.18 square miles is land and 0.05 square miles is water.
The community is located on U. S. Route 56, just west of Interstate 135. McPherson is part of the Little Arkansas River Watershed that empties into the Arkansas River in Wichita. Dry Turkey Creek is a wet weather stream that composes several enhanced lakes within the city limits, it feeds the Lakeside Park Lagoon before crossing under East Euclid Street and Kansas Avenue, where it forms Wall Park Lake. South and west of town are four units of the reclaimed McPherson Valley Wetlands and managed by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Ducks Unlimited, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Prior to 1880, this natural wetlands was an important waterfowl and wildlife habitat second only to Cheyenne Bottoms in importance to migratory bird populations; these wetlands continue to see development. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, McPherson has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.
Scottish Festival & Highland Games were held on the fourth weekend of September of each year. They are discontinued as of 2017; as of the census of 2010, there were 13,155 people, 5,521 households, 3,534 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,832.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 5,952 housing units at an average density o
Barton County, Kansas
