Elk County, Kansas

Elk County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Howard
Year Organized: 1875
Square Miles: 650

Court House:

P.O. Box 606
County Courthouse
Howard, KS 67349-0606

Named: Named for the Elk river, which traverses its area from northwest to southeast. (See Chautauqua.)

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Elk county was formed, along with Chautauqua county, when Howard County was split into two counties on March 25, 1875.

Elk County, in the southeastern part of the state, is the fourth county west of the Missouri line and in the second tier north from Oklahoma. It is bounded on the north by Greenwood county, on the east by Wilson and Montgomery, on the south by Chautauqua, and on the west by Cowley and Butler. The county was established in 1875 by an act which divided Howard county into Elk and Chautauqua counties. Its history prior to that date will be as that part of Howard county which later became Elk.

Geography

The surface is rolling and in some places hilly and bluffy. Bottom lands, which average about one mile in width, comprise 20 per cent. of the area. The timber belts along the streams average a quarter of mile in width and consist of oak, cottonwood, elm, hackberry, box elder, maple, hickory, butternut, red-bud and sycamore. The principal stream is Elk river, which enters the county in the northwest corner and flows southeast. The Fall river drains the northeast corner of the county; the southwest corner near Grenola has the beautiful Caney river valley. These various waterways have carved the whole county with big valleys and small canyons. Its main tributaries are Wild Cat, Paw Paw and Painterhood creeks. There are numerous other streams. Well water is found at a depth of 20 feet. Sandstone and limestone are found in abundance; marble of a fair quality and coal are found in limited amounts, and oil and gas are present in commercial quantities.

As you travel the county from west to east, you descend about 500 feet from the Flint Hills of Cowley county to the river bottoms that form the Elk City lake in Montgomery county. The rugged terrain leads some to call this area "the Kansas Ozarks."

Farming, ranching, and oil & gas production are all important to the local economy.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Greenwood County
Northeast: Wilson County
Southeast: Montgomery County
South: Chautauqua County
Southwest: Cowley County
Northwest: Butler County

Cities:

- Elk Falls	city	Incorporated Area
- Greenfield	township
- Grenola	city	Incorporated Area
- Howard (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Longton	city	Incorporated Area
- Moline	city	Incorporated Area
- Oak Valley	township
- Painterhood	township
- Paw Paw	township
- Union Center	township
- Wildcat	township

County Resources:

Elk County - KS-Cyclopedia - 1912

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our country!”

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.”

Penn Foster High School

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