Kansas 1885 to 1925

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In 1887, Susanna Salter, active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, became the first woman mayor in the U.S. when she was elected to that position in Argonia. This was also the first time Kansas women were allowed to vote in city elections. The twist to this story is several men nominated her as a joke and she was unaware her name was on the ballot until she went to the polls. However, she received 2/3 of the vote and accepted the position and salary of $1 per year. The joke backfired because she was politically astute; her father had been the town's first mayor and her father-in-law was a previous Kansas lieutenant governor. She never sought reelection and lived to age 101.

In 1887, while drilling a well in hopes of finding oil, Sam Blanchard struck salt at 91 m (300 ft). Hutchinson is located on top of one of the world's largest salt deposits. By the following year, twenty salt companies were extracting this mineral. These mines are so vast they are still mining salt today. And to think, that Kansas ceded the land that is now eastern Colorado because they didn't want to legislate mining.

In 1923, Amelia Earhart, a native of Atchison, was the first woman granted a pilot's license by the National Aeronautic Association. During her lifetime, she would be responsible for many firsts in female and general aviation. In 1928 she was selected to be the first female passenger on a transatlantic flight. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic; this flight set a new record of 13 hours, 30 minutes for transatlantic flight. In 1935, she was the first person to fly from Hawaii to the continental US. With this flight, she became the first person to traverse both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans solo. On June 1, 1937, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, flew from Miami to begin the 29,000 mile journey around the world. They landed in New Guinea on June 29 with 75% of the trip complete. After resuming their flight, they were never seen again. It's not surprising a woman with this aviation record came from Kansas. In 1927 there were over 40 aviation companies in Wichita and today Kansas still produces 60% of general aviation aircraft flown in the western world. America's first patented helicopter was invented by two Kansans, William Purvis and Charles Wilson of Goodland.