List of ghost towns in Kansas

Transportation: With the development of major highways and interstates, people were willing to travel farther for goods and services causing local businesses in smaller towns to lose customers and ultimately close. The more businesses that close, the more people are apt to want to move away to a bigger town. Transportation has played a major role in settlement in Kansas. As traffic from the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails increased, towns boomed along them. When railroads were established towns developed along the tracks or even moved to where the tracks were.
Politics: In Kansas, the political atmosphere was highly divided. Towns were either proslavery or abolitionist. When Kansas became a free state in 1861, proslavery towns died out. Survival of a town also depended on it winning the county seat. Towns that were contenders for the county seat and lost typically had most, if not all, of their town die out.
Lack of employment: Towns that catered to a specific industry such as coal mining or military housing were boom towns that quickly died when their markets collapsed. Some towns that mainly relied on agriculture were abandoned in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl period.
Eminent domain / flood control: Since 1951, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has sought to control floods through the building of dams along rivers and the resulting outcome is a town having to be moved or abandoned and demolished.
Environmental degradation: Remnants of lead and zinc mining can cause soil contamination that can render entire communities uninhabitable; e.g. Treece.^[1]

List

List of ghost towns in Kansas that are not incorporated cities or unincorporated communities:

Allen County

Anderson County

Hyattville

Atchison County

Butler County

Chase County

Cherokee County

Treece

Cheyenne County

Calhoun
Jaqua
Lawnridge
Marney
Orlando

Clark County

Lexington
Letitia was located southwest of Minneola

Clay County

Cloud County

Cowley County

Decatur County

Doniphan County

Geary

Douglas County

Elk County

Ellis County

Ellsworth County

Terra Cotta

Finney County

Franklin County

Appanoose
Forrest Home
Garlington
Greenwood
Minneola
Norwood
Ohio City
Pleasant Hill
Silkville

Geary County

Gove County

Graham County

Greeley County

Astor

Greenwood County

Lincoln County

Linn County

Barnard
Blooming Grove
Brooklin
Keokuk
Hail Ridge
Harmonia
Jackson
Linnville
Mansfield
Moneka
Oakwood
Paris
Potosi
Twin Springs

Logan County

Marion County

Marshall County

Mitchell County

Montgomery County

Le Hunt

Morris County

Comiskey

Neosho

Ladore

Norton County

Osborne County

Ottawa County

Vine Creek

Phillips County

Rawlins County

Reno County

Kent

Republic County

Rice County

Rooks County

Rush County

Russell County

Seward County

Arkalon

Shawnee County

Richland

Sheridan County

Smith County

Stevens County

Woodsdale

Thomas County

Trego County

Wabaunsee County

Vera

Washington County

Strawberry

Wichita County

Farmer City

References

↑ NY Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/magazine/last-ones-left-in-treece-kan-a-toxic-town.htm
↑ "Index of Kansas Places - Kansas Historical Society". www.kshs.org. Retrieved January 9, 2024.

External links

Kansas Dead Town List The Kansas Historical Society has a list of the Kansas "Dead Towns" online. These lists are detailed in books available at the Society in Topeka.
Lost Kansas Communities Project from the Chapman Center For Rural Studies at Kansas State University

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[1] NY Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/magazine/last-ones-left-in-treece-kan-a-toxic-town.htm

[2] "Index of Kansas Places - Kansas Historical Society". www.kshs.org. Retrieved January 9, 2024.

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