Kansas Symbols

Oh Give Me A Home, an article taken from Kansas Wildife and Parks Magazine, written by Mark Shoup gives further background information on our State symbols.

A note of thanks to the Kansas Heritage Home Page for allowing us to use some of their graphics.

Amphibian

Photo by Bob Gress
[salamander]

KSA 73-2301. Official amphibian of Kansas. The barred tiger salamander (ambystoma tigrinum mavortium, Baird, 1850) being a strikingly marked species, with robust body, and living in a range from the humid tallgrass prairie of eastern Kansas to the arid high plains at the western border, is hereby designated as the official amphibian of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1994, ch. 79, sec. 10; July 1.

Animal

KSA 73-1401. American buffalo. The American buffalo (Bos or Bison americanus) is hereby designated and declared to be the official animal of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1955, ch. 343, sec. 1; June 30.

Banner

KSA 73-703. State banner. A state banner be and the same is hereby adopted to be used on every and all occasions, when the state is officially and publicly represented, with the privilege of the use by all citizens on all fitting and appropriate occasions authorized by the state authorities.

History: L. 1925, ch. 290, sec. 1; Feb. 27.

KSA 73-704. Same; description; form and makeup. The official banner of the state of Kansas, provided for in K.S.A. 73-703, shall be of solid blue and shall be of the same tint as the color of the field of the United States flag, whose width shall be three-fourths of its length, with a sunflower in the center having a diameter of two-thirds of the space of the banner, enclosing and surrounding with its petals of gold, a brown center having a diameter of two-fifths the size of the sunflower. Service banners may be made of bunting or other material of such size as required on conforming to the proportionate specifications.

History: L. 1925, ch. 290, sec. 2; L. 1953, ch. 360, sec. 1; June 30.

Bird

KSA 73-901. Designation. The bird known as the western meadow lark, Sturnella-Neglecta (Audubon), as preferred by a vote of Kansas school children, is hereby designated and declared to be the official bird of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1937, ch. 319, sec. 1; June 30.

Flag

KSA 73-701. State flag. A state flag be and the same is hereby adopted to be used on every and all occasions, when the state is officially represented, with the privilege of the use by all citizens on all fitting and appropriate occasions which shall be authorized by state authorities.

History: L. 1927, ch. 281, sec. 1; March 23.

KSA 73-702. Same; description; form and makeup. The official state flag of the state of Kansas shall be a rectangle of dark-blue silk or bunting, three (3) feet on the staff by five (5) feet fly.

The great seal of the state of Kansas, without its surrounding band of lettering, shall be located equidistant from the staff and the fly side of the flag, with the lower edge of the seal located eleven (11) inches above the base side of the flag. The great seal shall be surmounted by a crest and the word KANSAS shall be located underneath the seal. The seal shall be seventeen (17) inches in diameter. The crest shall be on a wreath or an azure, a sunflower slipped proper, which divested of its heraldic language is a sunflower as torn from its stalk in its natural colors on a bar of twisted gold and blue. The crest shall be six (6) inches in diameter; the wreath shall be nine (9) inches in length. The top of the crest shall be located two (2) inches beneath the top side of the flag. The letters KANSAS shall be imprinted in gold block letters below the seal, the said letters to be properly proportioned, and five (5) inches in height, imprinted with a stroke one (1) inch wide; and the first letter K shall commence with the same distance from the staff side of the flag as the end of the last letter S is from the fly side of the flag. The bottom edge of the letters shall be two (2) inches above the base side of the flag. Larger or smaller flags will be of the same proportional dimensions.

The colors in the seal shall be as follows: Stars, silver; hills, purple; sun, deep yellow; glory, light yellow; sky, yellow and orange from hlls half way to motto, upper half, azure; grass, green; river, light blue; boat, white; house, dark brown; ground, brown; wagons, white; near horse, white; off horse, bay; buffalo, dark, almost black; motto, white; scroll, light brown.

History: L. 1927, ch. 281, sec. 2; L. 1961, ch. 376, sec. 1; L. 1963, ch. 394, sec. 1; June 30.

Flower

KSA 73-1801. State flower and floral emblem. Whereas, Kansas has a native wild flower common throughout her boarders, hardy and conspicuous, of definite, unvarying and striking shape, easily sketched, moulded, and carved, having armorial capacities, ideally adapted for artistic reproduction, with its strong, distinct disk and its golden circle of clear glowing rays a flower that a child can draw on a slate, a woman can work in silk, or a man can carve on stone or fashion in clay; and

Whereas, This flower has to all Kansans a historic symbolism which speaks of frontier days, winding trails, pathless prairies, and is full of the life and glory of the past, the pride of the present, and richly emblematic of the majesty of a golden future, and is a flower which has given Kansas the world-wide name, "the sunflower state": therefore,

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas: That the helianthus or wild native sunflower is hereby made, designated and declared to be the state flower and floral emblem of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1903, ch. 479, sec. 1; June 1; R.S. 1923, 75-3033.

Insect

KSA 73-1601 Honeybee. The honeybee is hereby designated as and declared to be the official insect of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1976, ch. 325, sec. 1; July 1.

Marches

There are two marches noted in the state statutes: The Kansas March and Here's Kansas. You can listen to these at http://www.calonsong.org/KansasSongs/kansasmarches.htm.

Reptile

KSA 73-1901 Designation. The Terrapene ornata, Agassiz (ornate box turtle) is hereby designated as and declared to be the official reptile of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1986, ch. 277, sec. 1; July 1.

Seal

KSA 75-201 Great seal of the state of Kansas. The great seal of the state of Kansas, procured by the secretary of state, as required by the joint resolution approved May twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one (which resolution was published as chapter seventy-eight [*], Laws of eighteen hundred sixty-one), shall be and remain the great seal of this state. Such seal is described in said joint resolution as follows: The east is represented by a rising sun, in the right-hand corner of the seal; to the left of it, commerce is represented by a river and a steamboat; in the foreground, agriculture is represented as the basis of the future prosperity of the state, by a settler's cabin and a man plowing with a pair of horses; beyond this is a train of ox-wagons, going west; in the background is seen a herd of buffalo, retreating, pursued by two Indians, on horseback; around the top is the motto, "Ad astra per aspera," and beneath a cluster of thirty-four stars. The circle is surrounded by the words, "Great seal of the state of Kansas. January 29, 1861."

History: L. 1879, ch. 166, sec. 15; March 20; R.S. 1923, 75-201.

Tree

Photo by Bob Gress
[seal]

Article 10.--STATE TREE

KSA 73-1001. Designation. The tree known as the cottonwood is hereby designated and declared to be the official tree of the state of Kansas.

History: L. 1937, ch. 318, sec. 1; June 30.