Lawrence (Kansas)

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Lawrence
Nickname : Larryville; Midwest Oasis
Downtown Lawrence looking south on Massachusetts Street
Downtown Lawrence looking south on Massachusetts Street
Location in Kansas
Douglas County Kansas Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Lawrence Highlighted.svg
Basic data
Foundation : 1854
State : United States
State : Kansas
County : Douglas County
Coordinates : 38 ° 58 ′  N , 95 ° 15 ′  W Coordinates: 38 ° 58 ′  N , 95 ° 15 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Inhabitants :
-  Metropolitan Area :		 95,358 (as of 2016)
119,440 (as of 2016)
Population density : 1,309.9 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 74.3 km 2  (approx. 29 mi 2 ) of
which 72.8 km 2  (approx. 28 mi 2 ) are land
Height : 256 m
Postcodes : 66044-66047, 66049
Area code : +1 785
FIPS : 20-38900
GNIS ID : 0479145
Website : lawrenceks.org
Mayor : Mike Amyx

Lawrence is a city in the United States in the northeast of the State of Kansas , county seat of Douglas County . Lawrence had a population of 95,358 in 2016, but it fluctuates constantly. This is because it is home to the University of Kansas , so the population falls every summer with the decline in students. Lawrence is one of the few “bruises” in Kansas: In the last four presidential elections , the Democrats have always had the most votes.

Geography and traffic

Lawrence is 41 miles west of Kansas City and 27 miles east of Topeka . The city is located at the confluence of the Wakarusa River in the Kansas River (also Kaw River ). In the center of the city rises a hill, Mount Oread , on which the main buildings of the University of Kansas are located. To the southwest of the city, the dammed waters of the Wakarusa form the Clinton Lake reservoir . Lawrence is on several railroad lines, one of which is on Amtrak's passenger service , and on Interstate 70, which runs east-west . Lawrence is on the two main routes for 19th century settler treks , the Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail .

history

The city was founded in 1854 by the New England Emigrant Aid Company and named after the abolitionist Amos Adams Lawrence . The New England Emigrant Aid Company was part of the anti-slavery movement and therefore targeted immigrants who were against slavery. At that time these were also Germans. The aim was to bring the Kansas Territory , which had not yet become a state, on the side of the opponents of slavery when it was foreseeably constituted as a state. When the city was founded, there were an equal number of states for and against slavery in the Union (13 each). Lawrence was also part of the Underground Railroad , a network that hid and transported escaped slaves. Due to the majority of the population against slavery, Lawrence was repeatedly the target of attacks by advocates of slavery ( Bleeding Kansas ). In 1856, Douglas County's slavery-friendly Sheriff , Samuel J. Jones, besieged the city for a week without attacking, but then returned later to destroy the offices of the abolitionist Herald of Freedom and Kansas Free State . One of the city's defenders was the abolitionist John Brown , who later became an icon of abolitionism through his own violent assaults on advocates of slavery. During the Civil War , Lawrence was the scene of a massacre in which 183 townspeople were murdered by Confederate guerrilla forces under William Clark Quantrill and much of the town burned to the ground. In both raids on the city, the hotel ( Free State Hotel ) operated by the New England Emigrant Aid Company was burned down, but it was rebuilt each time and is still in operation today (under the name Eldridge Hotel ). These events are reflected in the city's coat of arms, which depicts a phoenix rising from the city's ashes.

population

Currently 80,098 people live in Lawrence (as of 2000). There are 31,388 households in the city.

83.8% of the population of Lawrence is of European descent. 23.8% of people of European descent have German roots.

5.1% of the people living there are African American , 2.9% Indians , 3.8% Asians , 4.4% others.

91.0% of the population speak English as a colloquial language, another 2.9% prefer Spanish and 1.0% Chinese . Another 5.1% speak other languages ​​(including German )

climate

Over the whole year the average temperature fluctuates between –7 ° C in January and over 30 ° C in July. On average it is over 30 ° C on 49 days a year. The temperature drops below freezing point 96 days a year .

Usually the first night of frost occurs between the third week of October and the second week of November. The last night of frost is usually between the last week of March and the third week of April.

The lowest measured temperature was -30 ° C in December 1989. The highest was measured in July 1954 with 43.9 ° C.

Population development

Population development
Census Residents ± in%
1860 1645 -
1870 8320 405.8%
1880 8510 2.3%
1890 9997 17.5%
1900 10,862 8.7%
1910 12,374 13.9%
1920 12,456 0.7%
1930 13,726 10.2%
1940 14,390 4.8%
1950 23,351 62.3%
1960 32,858 40.7%
1970 45,698 39.1%
1980 52,738 15.4%
1990 65,608 24.4%
2000 80,098 22.1%
2010 87,643 9.4%
2018 estimate 97.286 11%
US Decennial Census

education

Lawrence is the seat of the University of Kansas , founded in 1865, the largest university in Kansas with almost 30,000 students . There is also the Haskell Indian Nations University , a college especially for members of Indian tribes, with around 1000 students. Lawrence is also home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics , which offers events on political education and houses an exhibition on the life and work of former Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole . Affiliated to the University of Kansas are a natural history museum and the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art .

art

The writers William S. Burroughs and Langston Hughes lived in Lawrence for some time. Every year the rock concert Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival takes place in Lawrence.

politics

Lawrence City Hall.JPG

Although the state of Kansas is more Republican in character, the majority of Lawrence's people tend to vote for the Democrats . Douglas County, where Lawrence is located, was one of the two Kansas counties that voted for John Kerry in the 2004 US presidential election .

religion

An old church in Lawrence

There are a number of different religious groups in Lawrence.

media

The daily newspaper with the highest circulation in Lawrence is the Lawrence-Journal World , and there is also the local television station Channel 6 .

Worth mentioning

Lawrence was best known for the 1983 film The Day After . Most of the film is set in Lawrence, as it is estimated that it would be one of the few cities in the United States that would survive a nuclear war virtually intact. The director also wanted to show the effect of a nuclear war on the average American, so he chose a small town in the American Midwest. Lawrence is near the geographic center of the United States ( excluding Hawaii and Alaska ). The proximity to Whiteman Air Force Base (about 100 miles away), an air force base where a large number of Minuteman nuclear missiles were stationed, was also important for the choice of Lawrence as the location .

In the film About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson , the title character visits Lawrence, where he studied, among others. The scenes were not shot in Lawrence. The city is also mentioned several times in the television series Supernatural . The two main characters Sam and Dean Winchester were both born there and return several times over the course of the seasons. The series Jericho - The attack mentions that Lawrence was destroyed by a nuclear attack. The series was partly filmed in Lawrence. The Lawrence Massacre is part of the Western Who Rides With the Devil with Tobey Maguire . Likewise, the series Heroes plays in the third season in Lawrence.

Josh Ritter wrote a song called Lawrence, KS , which u. a. by Richard Shindell gecovert was.

At launch, the Google Earth software is centered on the Lawrence block of flats where one of the software developers lived while he was a student at the University of Kansas.

In the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas is the stuffed horse Comanche , which for a long time was mistakenly believed to be the only survivor of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn between General Custer's troops against the Indian tribes under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in 1876.

Town twinning

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description of the trails on the city's tourism page
  2. ↑ James M. McPherson: Die for Freedom - The History of the American Civil War, Cologne 2008, p. 134
  3. ↑ Description of the settlement of the Midwest and the slavery conflict on the television station PBS (English)
  4. ↑ Information on Sheriff Jones of Territorial Kansas Online - in English
  5. ↑ Description of the city arms (PDF; 4.4 MB)
  6. ^ Population and Housing Unit Estimates . Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  7. ↑ United States Census Bureau : Census of Population and Housing . Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  8. ↑ Naturkundemuseum website ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Spencer Museum of Art website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nhm.ku.edu
  9. ^ Website on Burroughs in Lawrence Website on Hughes in Lawrence
  10. ↑ http://www.wakarusa.com/ Official website of the festival
  11. ^ Report in the Lawrence Journal World
  12. ↑ Article in the "University Daily Kansan"
  13. ^ Comanche in the museum
  14. ^ Comanche, Horse on Display. Roadside Pet Cemetery