 The highway passes through the small towns of Agra and Kensington before reaching Smith Center, the seat of Smith County, where US-281 joins US-36 for a 12-mile (19 km) concurrency.Near Lebanon, US-36 passes about four miles (6.4 km) south of the Geographic center of the contiguous United States, which is indicated by a marker where US-281 splits northward to Lebanon.US-36 then passes through largely unpopulated areas, except for the tiny town of Mankato in Jewell County.