Santa Fe is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in the center of Haskell Township,

Haskell County, Kansas Haskell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Sublette. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 3,780. The county was named after Dudley Haskell, a congressman during the ...

, United States. It was also the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Haskell County for more than the first quarter of a century of the county's existence. It was located along the road currently designated as U.S. Route 83 (US 83, originally K‑22), just north of its junction with U.S. Route 160 ( K‑46 926–1930 and K‑144.

History

On June 4, 1885 Star City was platted at a site just east of the location where Santa Fe was later established (across the current US 83). Shortly thereafter a company bought the Star City townsite and renamed the community after the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...

(which passed about to the north). The new townsite was platted June 12, 1886 and officially recorded on July 31, 1886. At the time, it was located within Finney County, but by the next year the community found itself at the center of the new Haskell County, after that county was created on March 23, 1887. Several months later, on July 1, 1887, Santa Fe became the temporary

and by November 7, it was designated as the permanent county seat (at least for the next 26 years). On January 2, 1888, Santa Fe was incorporated as a city. About that time, the population of Santa Fe reached its peak, estimated to be (depending the source) from 600–700 to as high as 18,000. However, within a few years the population of Santa Fe (and Haskell County) began a steady, but fairly rapid decline. On February 5, 1913, a referendum was held in Haskel County to change the county seat to Sublette (about to the south-southeast), but the vote failed. However, despite a district court ruling on April 11 which uphold the results of the poll, the

Kansas Supreme Court The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of seven justices, led by Chief Justice Marla Luckert, the court supervises the legal profession, administers the judicial branch, and serves as t ...

overturned that decision on June 7 and Sublette became the new county seat. Over the next five years, the majority of the remaining town residents (about 300) left the community, with most moving to Sublette (along with many of their houses and other buildings). In addition to moving closer to the railroad, which passed through Sublette, the decline may have also been affected by the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

(1918 influenza pandemic). The

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, which had been established June 16, 1886, closed July 31, 1925. The townsite was officially declared as abandoned by the

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States. A county usually has three to fiv ...

in 1926, even though it had been deserted for more than a year or two before. By 1988 there were no buildings remaining and the townsite had been converted to

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

. Notwithstanding, there is a meat processing plant and a huge feed lot in the area.

References

External links

Haskell County Historical Society & Museum's Santa Fe web page
{{Authority control Ghost towns in Kansas Former populated places in Haskell County, Kansas Populated places established in 1887 1887 establishments in Kansas

History

References

Further reading

External links