Flint Hills Discovery Center

The Flint Hills run in a band several hundred miles long from eastern Kansas into north-central Oklahoma, and the City of Manhattan built this 35,000-square-foot center to explain them. It opened on April 14, 2012, a few blocks from downtown, and its job is the overview: what the hills are made of, why the grass survived here, and who has lived on it.

More than 10,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits take the region through its geology, its plants and animals, and its human history and culture, from the people who hunted and farmed here to the ranchers who still burn and graze the pastures. A multimedia theater tells the story of the hills with sound, light and what the center calls 4D effects. Upstairs, the Carl and Mary Ice Prairie Playscape, rebuilt in 2022, lets children explore the land, work it and share it. Outside, a prairie garden and terrace grow native plants, and a temporary gallery brings in traveling exhibitions.

For trip planning, start at the Gateway Kiosk in the lobby, a guide to places to go across the Flint Hills. The center marks Kansas Day on January 29 and the National Day of the Cowboy on the fourth Saturday of July. It is closed to the public on Mondays. Visitors with an EBT card get reduced admission through Museums for All, and a local hotel key card takes $2 off an adult ticket.