Le Hunt (sometimes rendered as LeHunt) is a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
in
Montgomery County, Kansas
Montgomery County (county code MG) is a county located in Southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 31,486. Its county seat is Independence, and its most populous city is Coffeyville.
History
Early history
For many m ...
, United States.
While most of the site has been reclaimed by nature, the ruins of the United Kansas Portland Cement Company plant can still be seen today in the woods along the eastern shore of
Elk City Lake.
History
Le Hunt can trace its origins back to 1905, when the United Kansas Portland Cement Company purchased 1500 acres a few miles northwest of
Independence, Kansas and built a large factory. To accommodate the factory's many workers, a
company town was established by United Kansas Portland Cement Company.
[ The town was named after Leigh Hunt, the president of the Hunt engineering company of Michigan that had worked to construct the plant.]Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...
(who would go on to be a famous American film actor and the star of many early Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
movies) served as the small town's marshal.[
Following its establishment, the United Kansas Portland Cement Company suffered several years of financial issues, largely due to the failings of the Kansas cement industry. In 1913, the local newspaper announced that the plant would be temporarily closed to make repairs and sell its surplus stock. By January 1914, the company filed for bankruptcy. In 1915, the plant was purchased by the Sunflower Portland Cement Company. Price fluctuations after ]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
caused the Sunflower Portland Cement Company to be purchased in 1918 by its rival, the Western States Portland Cement Company, which after a series of mergers and purchases, became a part of the United States Steel Corporation
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...
. These events led to the Le Hunt plant closing, its equipment being sold off, and many of the homes located in Le Hunt being moved elsewhere. With limited housing and no major company to anchor the settlement, Le Hunt faded until it was nothing more than a derelict ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
.[Ratzlaff (1996), p. 285.]
Today, ruins of the cement plant still remain in the woods off County Road 5000. Most prominent is the factory's long-abandoned smoke stack, which rises above the tree line.[ According to Legends of America, "While trees and weeds try to choke out where the town's cement plant once stood, the walls, ovens and giant smokestack of the factory are still remarkably intact."]
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* Montgomery County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT
{{Montgomery County, Kansas
Ghost towns in Kansas