Blank Kansas map

What the outline shows

The outline is the state boundary and nothing else. Three sides are surveyed straight lines: the 40th parallel against Nebraska, the 37th parallel against Oklahoma, and the meridian against Colorado. The fourth, eastern side is a straight line against Missouri except in the northeast, where the Missouri River cuts the corner off in a curve from the Nebraska line down to Kansas City. No county borders, rivers or cities are drawn. Press Capital to mark Topeka in the northeast, on the Kansas River, and Abbreviation to stamp "KS". Almost all of Kansas is on Central time; the four counties on the Colorado border (Sherman, Wallace, Greeley and Hamilton) are on Mountain time.

Portrait or landscape

Kansas is about 410 miles east to west and about 210 miles north to south, almost exactly 2:1. Print in landscape. The rectangle then fills the page width, and the Missouri River curve at the northeast corner is big enough to see clearly. Portrait wastes the top and bottom thirds of the sheet. The state's rivers, when students draw them, run mostly east–west, so landscape also gives them room to be drawn long enough to label.

Five classroom exercises

1. Draw the Missouri River curve at the northeast corner and explain that it is the only part of the border that is not a straight surveyed line.
2. Draw the Kansas (Kaw) River from Junction City east through Topeka and Lawrence to Kansas City, and the Arkansas River from the Colorado line through Dodge City and Wichita to Oklahoma.
3. Shade the four Mountain time counties along the Colorado border and mark the time zone line.
4. Place Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Topeka and Lawrence, and note that four of the five are in the northeast corner.
5. Mark the geographic centre of the 48 contiguous states, near Lebanon in Smith County, on the northern border.

How to recognise the Kansas outline

• A wide rectangle, about twice as wide as tall, with three dead-straight sides.
• The top-right corner is rounded off by the Missouri River.
• Apart from that one curve, the outline has no natural features at all.
• Easily confused with Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming; the river corner is the giveaway.

Answer key and related maps

• Kansas map — the labeled version with capital, cities and borders; use it as the answer key.
• Printable Kansas map — the same outline with cities, county lines and the capital printed on.
• Kansas county map — all 105 counties with their seats.
• Topeka — the capital, on the Kansas River.
• Neighbours: Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado blank maps.
• Great Plains, Arkansas River, and Central / Mountain time zones.
• All blank state maps and the printable US maps index.