Reno County Ghost Towns

Darlow, six miles south of Hutchinson, once had a blacksmith, a lumberyard, two elevators, a depot, grocery and a school. Today a few homes remain. The former post office has been turned into a home. The town began as Booth. The post offic... Read more

Elmer still has a metal elevator and a road sign marking its presence. The post office at Elmer was called Bernal. But the railroad called the town Elmer. The town was platted in 1875. South Hutch founder Ben Blanchard even frequented the ... Read more

Any remains of Sego aren't visible from the roadway, except for a graveyard not far off Sego Road. It had a post office from 1874 to 1905, according to the Kansas State Historical Society. There also was a school, church, general store, c... Read more

Noblesville - It was founded in April 1930 by N.M. Begeman, who ran a filling station and grocery store. The Noblesville station, often still called the Huntsville Station, was converted into a private dwelling.

Ost - The town, typically known as St. Joe today, still has St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Back in the 1870s and 1880s, the town had a blacksmith, a barber and nearly 150 people.

In the distance, two tall white homes still stand, just as magnificent as they ever were. The school was moved away and the general store was torn down. And the few thousand acres of fruit trees that bore apples that were shipped across the... Read more

A lonely wind blows the cotton from the trees that have grown up in front of Lerado’s dilapidated lodge hall and opera house. The metal awning is rusted and dented, the windows boarded and the once widely used sidewalk chipped and cracked... Read more

Six miles southwest of Lerado, the town was once called Dresden when it was in Kingman County, but when the Reno County boundary moved south, Dresden became part of Reno County and its name was changed to Olcott. The post office opened in 1... Read more

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Residents first called it Highland Park, but the submitted name was crossed out and the name Avery was inserted on the application to establish a post office.   The Average Post Office operated from Feb. 16, 1885, to July 31, 1901. The fir... Read more

Baxterville was located in Valley Township. The town was comprised of eight lots, 80 acres each. It had an engineer and steam plow, a mason and plasterer, a shoemaker and a preacher - the Rev. Smith. A school was across the road and one mil... Read more

PUNKIN CENTER - There are no pumpkins in Punkin Center. Never have been, says 85-year-old Anna Hill with a laugh, although she says she has considered taking a tire she painted orange, printing on it the words “Punkin Center” and puttin... Read more

The Bland post office opened Feb. 2, 1900 with Gus Knoebel - who owned the land directly north of town, as the first postmaster. Bland was in Kisiwa Creek Valley. Its application for the post office listed the town as having a population of... Read more

Joshua Jones homestead the northwest quarter of Section 14 in Bell Township in 1873 - starting a store in his home. Other stores were started on each of the four corners. Dr. Wiley (also spelled Wylie or Wilye) Brown was the first doctor an... Read more

For a fleeting moment, this little town was touched by the silver screen. It was 1951, Francie White Grilliot recalled to The Hutchinson News in 2010. She and her grade-school friends were excited to be part of the background in a Hollywoo... Read more

The Cottonwood Grove Post office opened September 19, 1877. The postmaster was John Thatcher. The post office was moved to nearby Turon, located just to the west, on December 2, 1881. An article in the Hutchinson news said that Cottonwood G... Read more