Draw Kansas Outline from Memory
How well do you know The Sunflower State? Draw Kansas from memory and score 0–100 based on how accurately you sketch its distinctive outline.
More US States to Draw
Why Kansas Looks the Way It Does
Kansas is the state that bled for its rectangle. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the territory under "popular sovereignty," and pro- and anti-slavery settlers poured in to outvote each other — the guerrilla era remembered as Bleeding Kansas. When the state finally entered the Union free in January 1861, it was weeks before the war those fights foreshadowed.
The borders are the surveyor's plains grid at full confidence: two parallels (37th, 40th) and a meridian (102nd), drawn across grassland nobody in Congress had crossed. The one concession to nature is the Missouri River's bite at the top-right, fixed when the river was the territory's eastern edge — later surveys kept the line while the river kept wandering.
Underneath the box lies one of the planet's great geological stories: the High Plains aquifer, a trillion-gallon reservoir of ice-age water under the western half. The rectangle holds wheat fields, the Flint Hills — the last tallgrass prairie — and the pivot points that turned the plains green from the air. Kansas proves the West's founding bet: that a state can be a pure abstraction, and the land will still feed a nation inside it.
Quick Facts: Kansas
- Capital
- Topeka
- Nickname
- The Sunflower State
- Statehood
- 1861
- Area
- 212,859 km²
What is "Drawing Kansas Outline from Memory"?
Drawing Kansas from memory means sketching the Sunflower State's border on a blank canvas without looking at a map. Focus on the state's distinctive features and overall proportions — that's what pushes your accuracy score up.
Kansas became a state in 1861 and is rated ★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — one of the gentlest starter shapes on the site. When you hit Reveal, your sketch is scored 0–100 against the real border, so every attempt teaches you something about the outline.
Kansas is a rectangle in spirit: the 40th parallel on top, the 37th on the bottom, and the 102nd meridian on the west, all dead straight. The only irregularity is the small bite the Missouri River takes from the top-right corner near Kansas City.
How to Draw Kansas from Memory
Step 01
Draw the rectangle: Kansas is wider than tall, spanning exactly three degrees of latitude (37° to 40°). Three sides are single straight lines, making this one of the simplest shapes on the site.
Step 02
The bottom edge is the famous one — the 37th parallel, sitting just north of the old Missouri Compromise line at 36°30′. It runs dead straight against Oklahoma for its entire length, so commit to one clean horizontal stroke.
Step 03
Add the corner bite: in the top-right, the Missouri River loops into the state around Kansas City and back out, taking a small, chunky notch from the rectangle. It's a minor detail, but it's the difference between Kansas and a drawn box.
Nearly a perfect rectangle: straight top, straight bottom, straight west side — and just one exception, where the Missouri River nibbles a small bite from the top-right corner.
How Kansas Is Scored
When you hit Reveal & compare, your sketch is measured against Kansas's real border, point by point, in the same canvas space. Three numbers come back:
Matched — the share of the real border your drawing covered. 100% means you traced every part of the outline.
Extra — how much of your drawing fell outside the true border. This catches sketches that are too big, mispositioned, or drifting off.
Missed — the border you didn't reach, the flip side of Matched.
The three combine into a single 0–100 accuracy score. The rating names give you a target: 80+ is Cartographer, 60+ is Border patrol, 40+ is Getting there, and below 40 is Try again.
Drawing large and roughly centered is the single fastest way to raise your score — a small sketch tucked in a corner overlaps less of the true border, so it scores lower. For Kansas, keep the whole outline in frame and let the distinctive parts do the work.
FAQ
- What makes Kansas's outline distinctive?
- Kansas is a rectangle in spirit: the 40th parallel on top, the 37th on the bottom, and the 102nd meridian on the west, all dead straight. The only irregularity is the small bite the Missouri River takes from the top-right corner near Kansas City.
- How hard is it to draw Kansas from memory?
- Kansas is rated ★ out of 4 for drawing difficulty — one of the gentlest starter shapes on the site. You can score your attempts immediately and watch your accuracy climb with practice.
- Which states border Kansas?
- Kansas shares its border with 4 US states — Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Colorado are on this site. Drawing a neighbor right after Kansas helps anchor both outlines in your memory.
- How is my Kansas drawing scored?
- Your sketch is compared with Kansas's real border, point by point, in the same canvas space. Matched is the share of the border you covered, Extra is how much of your drawing fell outside it, and Missed is the border you didn't reach. The three combine into a single 0–100 accuracy score.
- Can I draw Kansas on mobile?
- Yes — Kansas works on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Draw with your finger on touchscreens; no app download is required and it runs directly in your browser.