Seal of Kansas

Kansas State Seal

Seal of Kansas

The symbols on the official state seal of Kansas were specified by the first Kansas legislature in 1861 (the year Kansas became one of the United States).

The rising sun represents the East; the river and steamboat are symbols of commerce; the cabin, settler and plow horses represent agriculture as the base for the future prosperity of the state of Kansas. In the distance oxen draw a wagon train west, and a herd of buffalo is pursued by two Indians on horseback (the buffalo was adopted as the official state animal of Kansas in 1955; herds of buffalo that numbered in millions once roamed Kansas).

In the sky are thirty-four stars (Kansas was the thirty-fourth state admitted to the Union) with the state motto above: "Ad astra per aspera" (to the stars through difficulties). The state seal is also represented on the state flag of Kansas.