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State hub · Kansas
Kansas ghost towns are mostly trail, railroad and farm towns. Settlements boomed along the Santa Fe and Oregon trails and then beside the railroads, and towns the tracks passed by often moved to them or died. Politics killed others: proslavery towns faded after Kansas became a free state in 1861, and towns that lost a county-seat fight usually emptied. Coal camps and company towns such as Le Hunt, built around a cement plant, died with their industries, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s emptied some farm towns, and Corps of Engineers reservoirs have displaced more since 1951.
A Kansas Historical Society list compiled around 1940 names over 5,000 little-known or extinct places, though some still have residents. Our index holds 184 sites, and the located ones are mostly in the eastern third of the state, led by Douglas, Franklin and Crawford counties. What survives is usually a church, a school or a cemetery. Doniphan keeps its brick church, Le Hunt the ruins of a cement plant, and Ravanna the brick pillars of a courthouse that was never used. Treece, a lead and zinc town on the Oklahoma line, was bought out and largely demolished by 2012.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideDouglas County
A farm settlement that never had more than about 50 people. A 1974 student newspaper story turned its cemetery into a widely told legend, and the…
GuideCherokee County
A lead and zinc town beside Picher, Oklahoma, surrounded by chat piles. A federal buyout emptied it, and Kansas dissolved the city in 2012.
GuideWyandotte County
A Free-State river port founded on Wyandot land in 1857 and a station on the Underground Railroad. Its ruins lie overgrown below the bluffs, near an…
GuideChase County
One of the oldest settlements in Chase County, named for a Pennsylvania shop, that grew into the state's largest railroad cattle-shipping point in…
GuideMarshall County
A railroad town on the Big Blue River that survived two tornadoes on one day in 1879. It was emptied in 1960 for Tuttle Creek Lake, whose water never…
GuideFranklin County
A French aristocrat's utopian colony that made prize-winning silk on the Kansas prairie in the 1870s. A stone schoolhouse and two barns survive on…
GuideElk County
A mill town of 513 people in 1880 that shrank to about a hundred. It calls itself the World's Largest Living Ghost Town, and keeps a waterfall, an…
GuideMorris County
Santa Fe Trail travelers called its spring the Diamond of the Plains. A railroad hamlet of the same name grew up four miles south and faded after its…
Douglas County
A proslavery town four miles from free-state Lawrence, raided twice in 1856. Its houses were hauled away to rebuild Lawrence after 1863, and only its…
Watch
A river-port overlook, an iron bridge, and the first territorial capitol. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Wyandotte County
Free-state river port of 1857 and an Underground Railroad station, home to about 600 people before it emptied in the 1860s. Axios reported in April 2026 that the overgrown townsite, on church and city land, is not open to the public. The John Brown statue at North 27th Street and Sewell Avenue stands by the street, with an overlook a few hundred yards north.
Geary County
Town laid out in 1854 beside Fort Riley, where the territorial legislature met for five days in July 1855. Its capitol is a state historic site, closed from October 4, 2026, until it reopens in April 2027.
Montgomery County
Cement company town of 1905 that passed 1,000 people within a year and faded after the plant closed around the end of World War I. The plant's walls and smokestack stand in the woods on the east shore of Elk City Lake.
Morris County
Santa Fe Trail watering place and 1849 mail station that later became a railroad hamlet; its post office closed in 1930. Stone ruins, a cemetery and the marked spring are on a private ranch.
Doniphan County
Missouri River town of 1854 with about 1,000 people in its heyday, stranded when a flood moved the river channel. A restored brick church and the Brenner winery ruins remain, with a few residents.
Elk County
Elk River town of 1870 that calls itself the world's largest living ghost town. About 100 people live there, near the falls and an 1890s iron truss bridge, and its Outhouse Tour runs the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving.
Cherokee County
Lead and zinc mining town on the Oklahoma line, emptied by a 2010 to 2012 buyout over contamination and dissolved as a city in 2012. In Street View imagery from September 2024, three streets into the townsite are gated, fenced or signed Private Property and Keep Out, and the EPA listed mine-waste cleanup there as still under way in 2025.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Kansas index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Many Kansas ghost towns left little more than a church, a school, a few foundations or a cemetery. Pick sites with known remains, like Doniphan's church or Le Hunt's cement plant, and check the status line before a long drive.
Unless a site is a park, a historic site or Corps of Engineers land, assume it is private. Kansas criminal trespass covers land that is fenced, locked or posted, and owners may post with purple paint: vertical stripes on trees or posts.
Many sites are on gravel county roads. Yellow signs reading "Minimum maintenance, travel at your own risk" mean the county does little upkeep, so skip them after rain. Check opening dates too: the First Territorial Capitol at Pawnee is closed from October 4, 2026, until April 2027.
Disturbing an unmarked burial site in Kansas without a permit is a crime with fines of up to $10,000 for a first offense, or more for valuable remains. On federal land such as Corps lakes, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act covers digging and collecting.
FAQ
Thousands, depending on how you count. A Kansas Historical Society list compiled around 1940 names over 5,000 little-known or extinct places, including some that still have residents. Our index lists 184 sites, 139 of them with coordinates on the map.
For something to see, Le Hunt's cement plant ruins on Elk City Lake and the Quindaro overlook in Kansas City are the most rewarding, though the Quindaro ruins below the overlook were not open to the public in April 2026. Pawnee's territorial capitol is a state historic site, closed from October 4, 2026, until April 2027. Elk Falls is a living town that leans into the ghost-town label.
Quindaro is inside Kansas City, Kansas, about 15 minutes from downtown. Delaware City and Hoge in Leavenworth County are 35 to 45 minutes out, Stull in Douglas County about an hour, and Doniphan, on the Missouri River above Atchison, about 1 hour 20 minutes.
Many lost a railroad, a county-seat election or their one industry. Proslavery towns faded after statehood in 1861, the Dust Bowl emptied farm towns in the 1930s, and reservoirs and pollution cleared out a few, like Treece.
Only with permission. Diamond Springs, for example, is on a working ranch. Treat fences, locked gates and purple-painted trees or posts as no trespassing.
Abandoned