The county seat of John County, Olathe is also one of the county's oldest cities and one of the state's fastest growing. It's Kansas' fifth largest city and growing all of the time: Olathe's population projection puts it near 120,000 by 2010. In 2006, Money magazine ranked Olathe No. 13 among the "Best Places to Live" in the central United States.
A young Virginia doctor, John T. Barton, headed the town company that established Olathe in the late 1850s, just after the Kansas Territory opened. According to local legend, it was Barton's Shawnee guide who, looking across a landscape of wild flowers, suggested its name from the Shawnee word for "beautiful."
Then and now, it was/is a town at the crossroads. In the 19th century the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails converged here. The Mahaffie Stage coach Stop and Farm, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, was the first dining stop for travelers heading west from Westport, Missouri. Today, the farm is a city park and the site of events like a Civil War border skirmish re-enactment every April. A new Heritage Center, scheduled to open this year, is under construction next to the stagecoach stop. Every year, Olathe honors its heritage with the Old Settlers Days celebration.
Today's Olathe crossroads are highway, not wagon trails. Located approximately 20 miles south west of Downtown Kansas City, Olathe is crisscrossed by Interstate 35, U.S. Highways 56 and 169 and Kansas Highways 150, 10 and 7. That good highway accessibility combines with an educated workforce (more than 40 percent of the population have bachelor's degrees) make this a place very attractive to business.
Companies growing here include Garmin International, Honeywell, Farmers Insurance and SYSCO Food Services of Kansas City, Inc. In early 2007, the first Bass Pro Shop in the state opened at 119th Street and Interstate 35 in Olathe.
Last year, Olathe was second among all cities in the eight-county metropolitan area in new home construction, notching more than 800 single-family unit permits. New subdivisions continue to open along the south, west and northwest edges of town, offering choices from mid-$100,000s starter homes to $1 million+ luxury homes. Housing options vary from 19th-century mansions listed on historic registries to neighborhoods built in the year following World War II, during the 1980s and just last week.
It's a full-service city - "A Community of Excellence" - with its own water, library, trash collection, wastewater and fire-police protection agencies. It is also home to the Olathe Medical Center, Johnson County Executive Airport, the Kansas School for the Deaf, MidAmerica Nazarene University, the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), The Olathe Arts Alliance, the Buddy Rogers & Family Playhouse and more than four million square feet of retail space, including Kansas' largest outlet mall, the Great Mall of the Great Plains.
The acclaimed Olathe School district is the state's third largest and boasts the low pupil ratio of 15.2:1.
Olathe has more than 40 neighborhood and community parks, including more than 1,600 acres of land and lakes, 23 miles of recreation trails, four outdoor pools, a disc golf course and a skateboard park.
Inside its 60 square miles are the Ernie Miller Nature Center, (operated by Johnson County Park & Recreation District) and Prairie Center, 300 acres of state-run native tall grass prairie and trails.
