Popeye always pops in at the Spinach Festival in Lenexa, Kan.

During the 1930s, The Kansas City Star labeled rural Lenexa, Kan., as the “Spinach Capital of the World,” saying the soil around Lenexa was “perfect for the crop.”

The ability of local farmers to produce “high-quality spinach helped the community survive and thrive during the Depression,” local historians say. And the community rode a crest of popularity attributed to the arrival of Popeye the Sailor in 1929 as a national comic strip character. Eating spinach gave him superpowers.

 

Much of the spinach grown in the Lenexa area during this period was shipped by rail to big canning factories located in Chicago, Ill., bringing premium prices…and profits…to farm families in the Lenexa area.

Interestingly, the first white settler in this section of the Kansas Territory in 1857 was 20-year-old James Butler Hickok, a farm boy from Illinois. He staked a claim for 160 acres and was hired as a township constable. 

Later in life, Hickok engaged in other pursuits…under the name of “Wild Bill Hickok.”

 

In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed while playing five-card stud poker in a saloon in Deadwood, located in the Black Hills region of the Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota), by Jack McCall.

 The hand of cards that Hickok supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the “deadman’s hand” – two pairs: black aces and eights. The hole card was unknown.

A town began to form in 1869 along the north-south rail line of the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, which ran for about 150 miles, connecting Kansas City, Fort Scott and Baxter Springs near the Oklahoma boundary.

The land for the railroad was donated by orchard owners Charles and Sarah Bradshaw. Some folks wanted to name the place “Bradshaw,” but the couple modestly declined the offer.

Instead, the community became “Lenexa,” derived from the name of a Native American member of the Shawnee Nation. She was Na-Nex-Se, wife of Chief Black Hoof. 

A statue in the center of the city commemorates her life. (The Shawnee people had relocated from Ohio in the mid-1820s.)

 

By 1930, the official population of Lenexa in Johnson County was 452. Today, 60,375 people reside in Lenexa, which has emerged as a popular suburb within the Kanas City metropolitan area.

About 600 farms are said to remain within the county, and there is pressure to ensure that some reasonable balance in land use planning is attained, thereby preserving an agricultural presence in Johnson County.

The Lenexa community continues to honor its spinach heritage with the annual Lenexa Spinach Festival, a free event that features the “World’s Largest Spinach Salad.” 

The recipe calls for 150 pounds of spinach, 600 mushrooms, 100 cloves of garlic and 12 jars of bacon bits – dressed with 75 cups of vinegar and 50 cups of salad oil.

This year’s festival is on Saturday, Sept. 12. It’s a full day of spinach-related activities and fun, including recipe contests with cash prizes. Available for purchase is the Lenexa Historical Society’s cookbook “Spinach Tyme,” which includes hundreds of food dishes and recipes from past winners.

 

Festival goers can enjoy cooking demonstrations and sample spinach dips and spinach smoothies. Additionally, there are arts and crafts vendors on site as well as a food court and live music.

Popeye, Olive Oyl and other familiar characters from the comic strips and cartoons will be making their rounds to add to the festivities. 

A highlight is always the “Swee’Pea Baby Crawling Contest.”

 

Children can enjoy crafts, inflatables, face painting, balloon twisting and age-appropriate games and activities.

Also, there’s a kids’ cane pole fishing tournament for channel catfish, bluegill, sunfish and largemouth bass as well as a rock skipping contest at Rose’s Pond within Lenexa’s Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park.

 

(Sar-Ko-Par was another Native American. He was a Creek warrior who served in the U.S. military during the Creek War of 1836. After his death, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln deeded 160 acres of land to Sar-Ko-Par’s heirs in payment for his military service.)