Q: We're looking for the name of a small southeast Kansas town. Here are your clues:
- It's located inside the Kansas county with the shortest name.
- The name of the town is a portmanteau (port-MAN-toe) of the names of two former rival towns.
- The town's name sounds so cute, crunchy and wholesome, you can almost eat it!
Name this town!
__________________________________________________________________________________
A: Grenola
The southeast Kansas towns of Green Field and Canola were once rivals located about three miles apart in Elk County. But in 1879, when the railroad came through, the tracks were being laid roughly halfway between these two communities. So, the towns of Green Field and Canola decided to join forces, move toward one another and form a brand new town, which they decided to call Grenola! Today, about 200 people live in Granola. ( We suspect the townsfolk call themselves Granolians, but we haven't been able to reach anyone yet to find out. We'll update this post when we do.)
This trivia question about Grenola may be as "corny as Kansas," but like the name implies, we think it's also wholesome good fun! Tune in most Fridays at 9 am for our Kansas Trivia contest -- and check out Kansas Trivia on #MyKPR's Facebook page or online... at KansasPublicRadio.org.
Fun factoid: The Kansas county with the longest name is Pottawatomie, which has 12 letters.
Check out the Kansas Trivia archive, researched, written & produced by KPR News Director J. Schafer, with assistance from #MyKPR's fabulous Membership Director, Joanna Fewins... and a few other good folks.