Kansas became officially dry May 1, 1881 after the passage of a constitutional amendment and subsequent enabling legislation.  The open saloon was “hereby and forever banned.”

Those counties which had overwhelmingly rejected the amendment tended to be urban and on the border with Missouri or in the untamed western part of the state.  In these areas the law was widely ignored, with local officials turning a blind eye to the saloons or occasionally “arresting” the saloonkeepers and “fining” them. In most cases this fine amounted to little more than an annual licensing fee.

These “wet” pockets were to eventually succumb to the law and the anti-saloon campaigning of Temperance stalwarts such as Carrie Nation, however.  By 1908 the state had become dry in fact as well as in name.

This state of affairs was to continue until 1934, when the Legislature approved the sale of 3.2 beer and 1948, when stores selling package liquor were legalized.  Kansas to this day allows liquor by the drink only on a county-by-county option, after another referendum in 1970.

Since open saloons became illegal in 1881, most saloonkeepers thought it prudent to maintain a low profile.  Having one’s name stamped on a saloon token certainly didn’t fit that picture!  Thus, during most of the period when tokens were popular, Kansas was not a player.  We can identify many persons who kept saloons and issued tokens, but the tokens rarely said “saloon.”