Riley County is a county located in the U.S. state of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

and largest city is

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,959. The county was named after Bennet Riley, the 7th governor of California, and a Mexican–American War hero. Riley County is home to Fort Riley and Kansas State University.

History

Riley County, named for Mexican–American War general Bennet Riley, was on the western edge of the 33 original counties established by the Kansas Territorial Legislature in August 1855. For organizational purposes, Riley County initially had attached to it Geary County and all land west of Riley County, across Kansas Territory into present-day

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The first Territorial Capital of Kansas Territory was located in the boundaries of Riley County, in the former town of Pawnee. The site now falls within the boundaries of Fort Riley, a U.S. Army post. Manhattan was selected as county seat in contentious fashion. In late 1857, an election was held to select the county seat, with Ogden prevailing. However, Manhattanites suspected election fraud, and were eventually able to prove that a number of votes were illegally cast. Sheriff David A. Butterfield was forced to secure the county's books and records for Manhattan, and Manhattan was finally officially declared the county seat in 1858. On May 30, 1879, the "Irving, Kansas Tornado" began in Riley County. This

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

is estimated to have been an F4 on the

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

, with a damage path wide and long. Eighteen people were killed and sixty were injured.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.0%) is water. The eastern border of the county follows the former course of the Big Blue River. The river was dammed in the 1960s and Tuttle Creek Lake was created as a result. The county falls within the Flint Hills region of the state.

Adjacent counties

* Marshall County (northeast) * Pottawatomie County (east) * Wabaunsee County (southeast) * Geary County (south) * Clay County (west) * Washington County (northwest)

Demographics

Riley County is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. People aged 15 to 34 years old make up 53.6% of the population of Riley County, one of the highest rates in the United States.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 62,843 people, 22,137 households, and 12,263 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 23,397 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 84.78%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 6.88% Black or African American, 0.63% Native American, 3.22% Asian, 0.17%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.89% from other races, and 2.43% from two or more races. 4.57% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 22,137 households, out of which 27.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.20% were married couples living together, 6.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.60% were non-families. 27.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 18.80% under the age of 18, 34.50% from 18 to 24, 25.90% from 25 to 44, 13.30% from 45 to 64, and 7.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 114.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 115.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,042, and the median income for a family was $46,489. Males had a median income of $26,856 versus $23,835 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $16,349. About 8.50% of families and 20.60% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 11.20% of those under age 18 and 6.70% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Riley County is governed by three county commissioners, John Ford, Marvin Rodriguez, and Ron Wells.

Presidential elections

Owing to its history of Yankee anti-slavery settlement in “ Bleeding Kansas” days, Riley County became strongly Republican following Kansas statehood, except when over half of its voters supported Progressive

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

in 1912 who himself was a Republican who had broken away from the party in that election cycle. Being relatively resistant to the Democratic populism of William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, Riley County stood as the westernmost of thirty-eight US counties to have never voted Democratic for President since the Civil War. However, it was the only one whose status as “never Democratic” stood significantly threatened in 2016 and 2020: Hillary Clinton's losing margin of only 3.5 percent was the second-closest any Democrat has come to claiming the county behind her husband in the divided 1992 election. In the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Laura Kelly won Riley County by a 24-point margin, and in the 2018 US House Election in KS-01, Republican candidate Roger Marshall lost Riley County by a 2-point margin. Even though he lost Kansas in 2020, Joe Biden won Riley County 50.7% to 46.1%, becoming the first Democratic presidential win in Riley County's history. In 2024, Donald Trump became the first Republican to win a presidential election without carrying Riley.

Laws

Riley County is the only county in Kansas without an elected

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

; the county police department handles all the sheriff's functions. Riley County was a prohibition, or "dry", county until the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1986 and voters approved the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with a 30 percent food sales requirement. The food sales requirement was removed with voter approval in 2004. The county voted "No" on the 2022 Kansas abortion referendum, an anti-abortion ballot measure, by 68% to 32%, outpacing its support of Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.

Education

Colleges and universities

* Kansas State University * Manhattan Christian College * Manhattan Area Technical College

Unified school districts

School districts with offices in the county include: * Riley County USD 378 * Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 * Blue Valley USD 384 Others: * Clay Center USD 379 * Geary County Schools USD 475 * Mill Creek Valley USD 329 * Rock Creek USD 323 * Valley Heights USD 498 * Wamego USD 320

Communities

List of townships / incorporated cities / unincorporated communities / extinct former communities within Riley County.

Cities

‡ means a community has portions in an adjacent county. * Leonardville *

‡ (county seat) * Ogden * Randolph * Riley

Unincorporated communities

† means a community is designated a

Census-Designated Place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) by the

. * Bala† * Fort Riley†‡ (formerly "Fort Riley North") * Keats† * Lasita * May Day * Walsburg * Winkler * Zeandale†

Former communities

These former places were flooded when Tuttle Creek Lake was created in the 1950s to 1960s. Randolph (above) was also flooded, but moved a mile west of its original location. * Cleburne * Garrison Cross * Stockdale * Winkler

Fort Riley

Located north of the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers in Geary County, Fort Riley Military Reservation covers in Geary and Riley counties. The fort has a daytime population of nearly 25,000 and includes a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

Townships

Riley County is divided into fourteen townships. The city of

which is surrounded by Manhattan Township is considered ''governmentally independent'' and is excluded from the census figures for Manhattan Township or any other townships. In the following table, the population center is the largest city (or cities) included in that township's population total, if it is of a significant size.

Notable people

Among notable current and former residents of Riley County are former Governor John W. Carlin, General Glen Edgerton, millionaire miner Horace A. W. Tabor, NFL receiver Jordy Nelson.

References

External links

;County *
Riley County - Directory of Public Officials
;Historical

Riley County Kansas AHGP
;Maps * Riley County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT * Riley County maps

(historical Township and place maps) * Kansas highway maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT * Kansas railroad maps
Current19961915
KDOT and Kansas Historical Society {{coord, 39, 20, N, 96, 42, W, type:adm2nd_region:US-KS, display=title Riley County, Kansas, Kansas counties 1855 establishments in Kansas Territory Manhattan, Kansas metropolitan area