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A small town where everyone greets you with a wave, even if they don’t know your name.

Hoisington, Kansas - History

Settlers from the East were eager to settle in this frontier. The War with Mexico had bequeathed an immense new western empire. California had been admitted as a state, and later, railroad survey parties were surveying land through Kansas for possible rail route to the Pacific. Barton County was organized in 1872; the area was grazing lands for buffalo and antelope, which roamed by the millions. Deer and elk were in the timbered stream valleys.

The Arrival of Trains

Pioneers of Homestead Township in the 1870’s had preceded the establishment of Hoisington and contributed to the laying of the railroad. Some of the main line grading was done through this part of the state in 1885, and the first work-train arrived in 1886. In the beginning, Monon was the railroad station. It became the division point because Chivington, Colorado failed to yield the required water. Lake Barton was constructed to provide water for the trains and shops. When the changeover from steam to diesel occurred, Lake Barton was converted to a recreational area.

Monon was established in 1888. Meanwhile, a post office had been established a mile and a half south of Monon at Buena Vista in 1879. The name of the post office was changed to Hoisington, in honor of Andrew Jackson Hoisington. By 1889, the station at Monon was moved to a new rail line, which went through Hoisington.

Hoisington, Kansas - Today

Hoisington, Kansas, the “Gateway to Cheyenne Bottoms”, combines a rich history as a railroad town, oil town, and farming community with today’s mix of agricultural production and manufacturing. Hoisington is also home twice a year to the endangered Whooping Cranes as they migrate.

The Whooping Cranes along with thousands of other bird species spend time at the Cheyenne Bottoms wetlands area whose border comes almost to the edge of Hoisington.

Hoisington is central to all you desire. Near the center of the continental United States, Hoisington has access to interstate highways in both directions. Hoisington is in the center of regional medical complexes within an hour in both directions. Hoisington is in the center of a low-cost rural grown labor pool with the mid-west work ethic. Hoisington is surrounded by two and four year colleges all within an hour’s drive and is the center of a vast hunting and fishing paradise.