Santa Fe
Named after the trail that passed through five
miles north of the town site, Santa Fe was platted on July 31,
1886. At that time it was located in Finney County, which changed
its boundaries in 1887, and Haskell County was established. Santa
Fe was right in the center of the newly formed county. It was
named the temporary county seat in July, and in November, the
town won the permanent county seat after an election was held.
Both the Kansas, Texas and Southwestern Railroad
and the Dodge City, Montezuma and Trinidad Railroad expressed
interest in building a railroad to Santa Fe, but neither option
worked out because they decided to build tracks south of the town.
Santa Fe began to decline in the early 1900's after these two
railroads decided not to build to the town, but its citizens still
held out hope that another railroad would make plans to build
tracks to town. After a third railroad, the Wichita Falls Railroad,
had made plans to come but decided not to, an election was held
on February 5, 1913 to determine the county seat. The choices
were Santa Fe and Sublette. When Sublette did not receive the
required three fifths of the vote, they took the matter to the
Kansas Supreme Court which ruled in favor of Sublette.
Most of the citizens left Santa Fe during the
next five years and moved to either Sublette, 7 miles south of
Santa Fe, or Satanta, west of Sublette. The land that once was
home to a town called Santa Fe is now being farmed.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Fitzgerald, Daniel. "Ghost
Towns of Kansas". Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1988.
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