An old grain elevator in what was Blakeman, Kansas, courtesy Kansas Ghost Town Hunter.
Blakeman, Kansas, in Logan Township of Rawlins County, is an extinct town today.
The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad built tracks to the north of Atwood in 1886-1887, and the tracks continued along the creek to the junction of the Middle and North Beaver Creeks, which was five miles west of Atwood. When a post office was established on April 21, 1887, it was first called Weeks. At that junction was to be the new townsite of Blakeman. The town’s name was changed from Weeks to Blakeman on August 5, 1887.
The Burlington and Missouri Railroad purposely set the tracks that way because they wanted their new townsite to be the county seat. An idea was put forth by the railroad to move the entire town of Atwood to Blakeman in 1886, but the citizens of Atwood rejected it.
The Lincoln Land Company, a subsidiary of the railroad, platted the land, and a large depot was built in Blakeman, and several buildings were moved from Atwood to the new town. The railroad then began the campaign to move the county seat to Blakeman from Atwood. The town then filed a petition that called for an election to relocate the county seat to Blakeman. Still, the county commissioners refused to do so because the required three-fifths of the registered voters had not signed the petition. The case was appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court by the railroad and Blakeman residents, but the court ruled in favor of the county commissioners. The controversy continued for some time until people tired of it, and the Nebraska corporations — the Lincoln Land Company and the Burlington and Missouri Railroad gave up the cause in the early 1900s. Many of the buildings had been moved to Atwood.
Blakeman, Kansas Cemetery, courtesy of Find a Grave.
In 1910, the Lincoln Land Company sold the town to W.E. Thompson, who plowed the ground under and used it for farmland. At that time, Blakeman was on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which had a money order post office, telegraph, and express offices, and was a shipping and supply point for the neighborhood, with a population of 100.
In the following years, the town declined, and its post office closed on August 31, 1952. This was at about the same time as when the railroad depot closed. The railroad line to St. Francis was sold to the Nebraska-Kansas-Colorado Railway in 1996, and the last trains ran along the line in 2015.
The old schoolhouse has been remodeled and is owned by the Rawlins County Sportsman’s Association. They have a very successful shooting range and organized competitive shooting for skeet and trap. They are a very organized group and sponsor an annual auction/fundraiser for projects in nearby Atwood.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, August 2025.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Rawlins County
Rawlins County, Kansas
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Kansas Ghost Town Hunter
Kansas Post Office History