‘It’s gorgeous.’ Shawnee honors its Belgium past in this park’s cottage garden

When Belgian immigrants came to America, many of them found their way to the Shawnee area in the late 1800s and after. They settled on family farms of 10 to 40 acres, grew vegetables as they had done back home and sold the produce at market in Kansas City. By 1930, Belgian-born immigrants made up 28% of Shawnee’s population, and many more residents were children of those immigrants. Shawnee celebrates its Belgian heritage in West Flanders Park at 55th Street and Nieman Road, where poppies grow in the spring near a marker that highlights the immigration story, Belgium’s role in World War I and Shawnee’s sister city relationship with the West Flanders town of Pittem.