Geography Notes: Kansas Location, Latitude/Longitude, and Meades Ranch Station

Kansas and Global Location

Kansas is located in the center of the contiguous United States and is often called America’s heartland. The state’s geographic center lies in Smith County, near Lebanon. When Alaska and Hawaii are included, the geographic center of the United States sits in North Dakota. Geography links places, features, and people; location is a starting point for geography because it influences landforms, weather, wildlife, and the economy.

Location can be described in two main ways. Relative location describes a place’s position in relation to other places; for example, Kansas is near Nebraska and between Colorado and Missouri. The Kansas State Capitol is west of Kansas City, north of Wichita, and east of Colby. Absolute location is the exact position on the Earth’s surface, which can be described by a street address (e.g., the Kansas Historical Society is at 6425 SW 6th Ave, Topeka) or by lines of latitud

e and longitude.

Latitude and longitude are a grid used to describe location. Latitude lines measure distance north or south of the equator; longitude lines measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. The equator is the 0° latitude line, and a hemisphere is half of the Earth. The Prime Meridian is 0° longitude and divides the world into eastern and western hemispheres. The Western Hemisphere includes the continents of North and South America.

Kansas is located between $37^\circ$ and $40^\circ$ north latitude, and $94^\circ$ and $102^\circ$ west longitude. Kansas is part of both the northern and the Western hemispheres. The location opposite Kansas on the globe (the antipode) lies in the northern hemisphere in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China.

Latitude, Longitude, and Hemispheres Details

Latitude lines measure distance north or south of the equator, while longitude lines measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. The equator, at $0^ o$ latitude, marks the boundary between northern and southern hemispheres, and the Prime Meridian, at $0^ o$ longitude, marks the boundary between eastern and western hemispheres. Kansas’ coordinates place it in the northern and Western hemispheres.

Geodetic Survey and Meades Ranch Station

"Geodetic" relates to the surveying of land to measure, describe, and record information for maps. To provide accurate surveys, a single consistent starting point was established: Meades Ranch Station, a concrete marker in Osborne County, Kansas. On the marker is a triangle with a dot in the center. In 1901, this location was chosen as the point from which all maps in the United States would be related. Twelve years after the United States began using the Meades Ranch Station, Canada and Mexico adopted the same reference point. This means that maps and borders across North America are determined from this pasture in north-central Kansas.