Heizer, Kansas Main Street courtesy Google Maps.
Heizer, Kansas is an unincorporated semi-ghost town in southwest Barton County.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Heizer, Kansas 1931.
The town started in the late 1880s as a stop on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The settlement was first called Heizerton after David N. Heizer, a founder of Barton County and the former mayor of Great Bend who once owned the land on which Heizer was built.
In 1886, the railroad built a depot that measured 24′ x 42′. The first store was established by D. E. Freyberger, who later sold out to Reinicke & Sons. Shortly after the town was laid out, Schwier and associates established a creamery that would operate for several years. The community received a post office on April 4, 1887. On March 20, 1891, the post office and the town’s name were changed to Heizer.
In the following decades, several other businesses were established, including a blacksmith shop, hotel, stockyard, lumberyard, church, school, several grain elevators, general stores, a hardware store, and a bank. The population peaked at 100 in the early 1900s, but it steadily began to fall afterward. Like many other Kansas settlements, the town was particularly hit hard during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
On May 15, 1954, the town’s post office closed forever, and none of its former businesses continue to operate today. The old town now comprises several homes, farm buildings, and about 20 people.
Heizer, Kansas bank building courtesy Wikipedia.
Heizer is about eight miles northwest of Great Bend on Kansas Highway 96.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated October 2024.
Also See:
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas, Great Bend Tribune, 1912
Wikipedia