Wilburton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Morton County, Kansas Morton County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and largest city is Elkhart. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,701. The county was named after Oliver Morton, the 14th go ...

, United States, located along

U.S. Route 56 U.S. Route 56 (US 56) is an east–west United States highway that runs for approximately in the Midwestern United States. US 56's western terminus is at Interstate 25 Business (I-25 Bus.), US 412 and New Mexico State Road 21 (NM 21) in Sp ...

highway and the

Cimarron Valley Railroad The Cimarron Valley Railroad was formed May 29, 1996 in Utah, United States. In that year it purchased from what was then Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (now BNSF Railway) trackage built , being the former C.V. and Manter Subdivisions of th ...

, northeast of Elkhart.

History

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

was organized in 1854 and

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 ...

became the 34th

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

in 1861. In 1886, Morton County was established, which included land for modern day Wilburton. A post office was opened in Wilburton in 1913 and remained in operation until 1957. In the 1930s, the prosperity of the area was severely affected by its location within the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...

. This catastrophe intensified the economic impact of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

in the region, but until the mid-1950s, the town held its own with a population of 1,000–1,500, served by a grocery, dry goods store, gas station, repair garage, a restaurant, complete system of public schools and several churches. Additional businesses included several grain elevators and a lumber yard. There was also a railroad station. From 1960 onward, Wilburton deteriorated very rapidly. It was disincorporated by the start of that decade. Businesses and services were all gone by the 1970s and, by the opening of the 21st century, most homes were gone or abandoned also, leaving one house opening onto Route 56 and two farms on a side road across the railroad tracks. Some have even designated it a ghost town, although all unused buildings have been torn down or moved.

History

References

Further reading