Gove County, Kansas

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

County Seat: Gove
Year Organized: 1886
Square Miles: 1,072

Court House:

520 Washington
County Courthouse
Gove, KS 67736-0128

Named: In honor of Captain Grenville L. Gove, Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, who died in 1864.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Gove County, in the western part of the state, is the third from the west line of the state, the third south from the Nebraska line and the fifth north from Oklahoma. It is bounded on the north by Thomas and Sheridan counties, on the east by Trego, on the south by Lane and Scott, and on the west by Logan county.

Geography

The surface is undulating with bluffs and rough lands along the streams. Bottom lands average one-half mile in width. The largest stream is the Smoky Hill river which flows from west to east through the southern part. Two branches of Hackberry creek enter in the northwest and join two other creeks near the center of the county, forming the larger Hackberry creek which continues in a southeasterly direction, joining the Smoky Hill in Trego county. Gypsum, limestone and mineral paint are found in considerable quantities.

Winter wheat, corn, barley and sorghum are the principal field crops. Live-stock raising is profitable.

Point of Interest

Gove County is in the high plains, but the Smoky Hill River has cut a deep valley across it from west to east. This valley has been a natural route west for centuries, and it's lined with geologic splendors like Castle Rock (left) and Monument Rocks (right.)

Grainfield's magnificent Opera House is being restored.
The county is famous for the reptile fossils found in its chalk beds.
Visit the County Seat Cafe in Gove for Sunday breakfast.
The church at Park is a landmark can be seen for many miles.
You can get great beef jerky in downtown Grinnell.

Neighboring Counties:

Thomas and Sheridan - North
Trego - East
Lane and Scott - South
Logan - West

Cities:

- Baker	township
- Gaeland	township
- Gove (County Seat)	township
- Gove City	city	Incorporated Area
- Grainfield	city	Incorporated Area
- Grinnell	city	Incorporated Area
- Jerome	township
- Larrabee	township
- Park	city	Incorporated Area
- Payne	township
- Quinter	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Gove 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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