Kansas Turnpike Through Flint Hills Photo Print

"Kansas Turnpike Through Flint Hills" by Catherine Sherman. Fluffy white clouds cast shadows over the Kansas Turnpike as it curves through the rolling Flint Hills of east-central Kansas. I've driven this road hundreds of time, but didn't know much about its history. I didn't realized that it predated the interstate highway system or that it stopped when it reached Oklahoma. Drivers who didn't realize the road stopped would crash into an oat field, until a connecting highway was completed in Oklahoma. Now I-35 continues through Oklahoma and into Texas. The Kansas Turnpike is a 236-mile-long (380 km), freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely within the U.S. state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas cities, including Wichita, Topeka, and Lawrence. The Kansas Turnpike was built from 1954 to 1956, predating the Interstate Highway System. While not part of the system's early plans, the turnpike was eventually incorporated into the Interstate system in late 1956, and is designated today as four different Interstate Highway routes: I-35, I-335, I-470, and I-70. The turnpike also carries a piece of U.S. Routes 24 and 40 in Kansas City. The turnpike is self-sustaining; it derives its entire revenue from the tolls collected and requires no tax money for maintenance or administration. Around 120,000 drivers use the turnpike daily.