Olathe, Kansas. City and Business guide.

Welcome to Olathe, Kansas.

Olathe is a city located in northeast Kansas, and is the second most populous city and county seat of Johnson County. It is also the fifth most populous city in the state. As a suburb of Kansas City, it is the fifth largest city included in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by the cities of Lenexa to the north and Overland Park to the east.

Johnson County Courthouse. Monument commemorates Santa Fe Trail crossing at this point. Photo by kansasexplorer, June 2006
Olathe was founded by Dr. John T. Barton in the Spring of 1857. He rode to the center of Johnson County, Kansas and staked two quarter sections of land as the town site. He later described his ride to friends. "..[T]he prairie was covered with verbena and other wild flowers. I kept thinking the land was beautiful and that I should name the town Beautiful." Purportedly, Dr. Barton asked a Shawnee interpreter how to say "Beautiful" in his native language. The interpreter responded, "Olathe".

After the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the trails to the west lost importance, and Olathe faded back into obscurity and remained a small, sleepy prairie town until the 1950s. With the construction of the Interstate Highway system and, more directly, I-35, Olathe was directly linked to nearby Kansas City and began an economic boom that accelerated in the 1980s and continues today.

Many well-known companies such as Honeywell and ALDI are located in Olathe's numerous commercial and industrial parks. The GPS manufacturer Garmin is headquartered in this city.

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