The Other Center to Consider

The Geographical Center of the United States. One of the locations marked to be the Geographic Center of the 48 Contiguous United States is located within a small park, approximately a mile north of the town of Lebanon, Kansas. A marker is located at the intersection of AA Road and K-191, accessible by a turnoff from U.S. Route 281. The actual measured center is about 1/2 to 3/4 mile away on private property, so the marker was placed as close as possible to the property.

The inscription on the plaque reads:

THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER OF THE UNITED STATES
LAT. 39°50' LONG. 98°35'
NE 1/4 - SE 1/4 - S32 - T2S - R11W
Located by L.T. Hagadorn of Paulette & Wilson - Engineers and L.A. Beardslee – County Engineer. From data furnished by U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Sponsored by Lebanon Hub Club. Lebanon, Kansas. April 25, 1940.

When Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union in 1959, the National Geodetic Survey designated Belle Fourche, S.D., as the geographic center of the USA. A geodetic survey takes into account and calculates for the curvature of the Earth. The marker for the center lies about 20 miles north of the town on an uninhabited parcel of private pastureland.