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List of ghost towns in Kansas

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Map of the United States with Kansas highlighted

This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in the state of Kansas.

Causes

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There are many reasons as to why a community becomes abandoned (or nearly abandoned).

  • 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 pro-slavery or abolitionist. When Kansas became a free state in 1861, pro-slavery towns died out. Survival of a town also depended on if it won the county seat. Towns that were contenders for the county seat and lost typically saw most, if not all, of their town die out.
  • Lack of employment – Towns that catered to a specific industry like coal mining or military housing were boom towns that quickly died when their markets collapsed. Some towns were abandoned in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl period which mainly relied on agriculture.
  • Eminent domain / flood control – Since 1951, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have 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

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List of ghost towns in Kansas, which aren't incorporated cities or unincorporated communities:

Allen County

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Anderson County

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Atchison County

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Butler County

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Chase County

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Cherokee County

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Cheyenne County

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Clark County

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  • Lexington
  • Letitia was located southwest of Minneola

Clay County

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Cloud County

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Cowley County

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Decatur County

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Doniphan County

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Douglas County

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Elk County

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Ellis County

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Ellsworth County

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Finney County

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Franklin County

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Geary County

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Gove County

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Graham County

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Greeley County

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Greenwood County

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Harper County

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Harvey County

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Haskell County

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Jewell County

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Labette County

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Leavenworth County

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Lincoln County

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Linn County

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Logan County

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Marion County

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Marshall County

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Mitchell County

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Montgomery County

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Morris County

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Neosho

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Norton County

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Osborne County

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Ottawa County

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Phillips County

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Rawlins County

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Reno County

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Republic County

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Rice County

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Rooks County

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Rush County

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Russell County

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Seward County

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Shawnee County

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Sheridan County

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Smith County

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Stevens County

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Sumner County

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Thomas County

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Trego County

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Wabaunsee County

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Washington County

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Wichita County

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See also

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References

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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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