Hiawatha, Kansas
| Hiawatha, Kansas | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Brown County Court House (2011)
|
|
 Location within Brown County and Kansas |
|
 KDOT map of Brown County (legend) |
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| Coordinates: 39°51′9″N 95°32′11″W / 39.85250°N 95.53639°WCoordinates: 39°51′9″N 95°32′11″W / 39.85250°N 95.53639°W | |
| Country |
 United States
|
| State |
 Kansas
|
| County | Brown |
| Established | 1857 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.59 sq mi (6.71 km2) |
| • Land | 2.59 sq mi (6.71 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 1,132 ft (345 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 3,172 |
| • Estimate (2012) | 3,133 |
| • Density | 1,200/sq mi (470/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 66434 |
| Area code(s) | 785 |
| FIPS code | 20-31675 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0472987 |
| Website | CityOfHiawatha.org |
Hiawatha (Ioway: Hári Wáta pronounced [haːꜜɾi waːꜜtʰɐ]) is the largest city and county seat of Brown County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,172.
Hiawatha was founded in 1857, making it one of the oldest towns in the state. John M. Coe, John P. Wheller, and Thomas J. Drummond were instrumental in organizing the city, and the site was staked out February 17, 1857. B.L. Rider reportedly was responsible for naming Hiawatha, taking the young Indian's name from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. Hiawatha became the Brown County Seat in 1858, and the first school opened in 1870.
The main street was designated Oregon Street after the Oregon Trail. Parallel streets north of it were named after Indian tribes north of the Trail, and streets south carried tribal names of those south of the Trail.
Hiawatha is named after a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called The Song of Hiawatha. In the poem is legendary Onondaga and Mohawk Indian leader Hiawatha. Adjacent to the former Ioway-Sac reservation and the present-day Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Hiawatha is called Hári Wáta in Ioway, meaning "I am looking far away". This name may be the result of choosing Ioway words that sound like the English name. It has nothing to do with the Onondaga-Mohawk leader.
The city is also home to the longest running continuous Halloween parade in the nation, starting in 1914.
According to The New York Times in 2012, "the cartoonist Bob Montana inked the original likenesses of Archie and his pals and plopped them in an idyllic Midwestern community named Riverdale because Mr. [John] Goldwater, a New Yorker, had fond memories of time spent in Hiawatha, Kan." Goldwater had hitchhiked to the community at the age of 17 and started working at the Hiawatha Daily World.
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Wikipedia