Arkalon is a ghost town in
Seward County, Kansas
Seward County (standard abbreviation: SW) is a county of the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 21,964. The largest city and county seat is Liberal. The county was formed on March 20, 1873 and named after Wi ...
, United States. It was located northeast of
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
on the west side of the
Cimarron River.
History
After the
Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway
The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway (originally ''Railroad'') was formed in 1885 with Marcus Low, a former attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, as its president. The CRI&P advanced the CK&N about twenty-five million do ...
built through the area in 1888, a townsite
sprang up and
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted in 1888. The town was named Arkalon for Arkalon Tenney, the father of the first
postmaster of the town, Hosea Eugene Tenney.
[Sampson of the Cimarron and Arkalon history; rits.org](_blank)
/ref> A post office called Arkalon was established in 1888 and remained in operation until 1929.
The ''Arkalon News'' newspaper was published from April 1888 until December 1892.
/ref> A large stockyard was erected for shipping cattle to market. While the nearby river held promise for the early settlers, they soon found that the bottom land next the Cimarron River was too sandy for farming and flooded too often. By the 1920s most of the early settlers had left, leaving only the railroad and stockyards behind.
References
Further reading
External links
;Historical photos
Custer Store between 1890 and 1910
Kansas Historical Society
Arkalon Schoolhouse between 1910 and 1930
;Historical railroad trestle - "Samson of the Cimarron"
rits.org
kansastravel.org
Mighty Samson Bridge nears 73rd birthday
leaderandtimes.com
;Maps
* Seward County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT
Landforms of Seward County, Kansas
Ghost towns in Kansas
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