List of ghost towns in Kansas

There are many factors and 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.
• Industry/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.
• Schools – Schools can serve as a place of civic pride. Towns that lose their local school to consolidation can no longer root for their home team. When a school district is closed and students moved to another district, the remaining abandoned school just adds insult to injury.
• National economic depressions - There have been several economic depressions and recessions that have wiped towns off the map. As people lose their jobs or have to move because of another job, towns lose population.
• 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, Kansas.[1]

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

• List of counties in Kansas
• List of townships in Kansas
• List of cities in Kansas
• List of unincorporated communities in Kansas
• Lists of places in Kansas

• Kansas Dead Town List The Kansas Historical Society has a list of the Kansas "Dead Towns" online. These lists are detailed in books available at the Society in Topeka.
• Lost Kansas Communities Project from the Chapman Center For Rural Studies at Kansas State University