Even though it is flat and square and not that large, Kansas has two time zones. This is because areas cross an invisible boundary, an entrance into another time dimension, the Mountain Time Zone. Yes, Kansas does span two time zones. Four counties in Kansas are on Mountain Time, which makes no sense, even though they are on the western edge and are highest in elevation.
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| You can set your watch by it |
There are four counties in Western Kansas that have joined the Mountain Time zone. The rest of the counties are in the Central Time zone. Sherman, Wallace, Greeley, and Hamilton counties are all a little bit behind (an hour to be exact) the rest of Kansas. So why did they do this? Was it just to be annoying? Did they originally think they were living in Colorado? This article can help answer those questions, and is well worth the read.
Questions of this peculiar situation arose for me a couple of days ago. I took my cross country team to Syracuse, Kansas and noticed that my watch dropped back an hour. It is an apple watch and it keeps track of stuff like time zones for me so I don't have to think about that stuff anymore. I left Dodge City at 6:30, drove 90 miles, and arrive in Syracuse at 7:00. No, I wasn't speeding. I had crossed into one of those interesting little counties which exist in Mountain Time, and due to that I got there way too early. Interestingly enough, you could drive straight north or south for about a hundred miles and be in three time zones. That would be a lot of work for my watch. It might need to recalibrate!
Anyway, I made a point of telling people from that area that even though you live in the Mountain Time Zone you still live on the prairies. They weren't impressed with my superior knowledge of what constitutes a mountain and what makes up prairie life in the central time zone. Oh well, you can't please everyone!
Very weird. On the positive side, until 1990, the western half of Kearny County was on Mountain Time.
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