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Geographic Center of the Contiguous U.S.
The middle of the Lower 48, in northern Kansas
The geographic center of the contiguous United States lies on a quiet farm in northern Kansas, a few miles from the small town of Lebanon, close to the Nebraska line. Calculated in 1918 by balancing a cardboard cutout of the 48 states on a point, it marks the spot that best represents the "middle" of the Lower 48. A small stone monument, a flagpole, and a tiny chapel sit at the site amid the rolling wheat country of the Great Plains.
Such a center is really an approximation - there is no single agreed way to find the exact balance point of an irregular shape - but the Lebanon marker has been the traditional answer for more than a century. It is a fittingly understated spot for the heart of the country: a windswept field far from any city, surrounded by the farmland that fills the middle of the map.