Grain elevators in Dresden, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Dresden, Kansas, is a small town in Dresden Township of Decatur County. It is also an extinct town, as its post office closed in 2007. As of the 2020 census, the city’s population was 43, and the city has a total area of 0.94 square miles, all land.
Dresden was founded and surveyed in May 1888. German settlers named it after the city of Dresden, Germany. The first post office in Dresden was established in October 1888, with Ernest G. Bacon as postmaster.
Old railroad depot in Dresden, Kansas.
That year, it was a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, situated on the high divide between the Prairie Dog Creek and the Solomon River. Dresden was soon growing rapidly with a drugstore, a bank, a hotel, and several grocery stores.
The depot was a major starting and ending point for travelers from other towns in the area, as they had to go to Dresden to catch the train to Kansas City, Missouri, or Denver, Colorado.
In 1910, Dresden was described as a prosperous little town. At that time, it had two banks, a money order post office with two rural routes, telegraph, express, and telephone service, grain elevators, a creamery, some well-stocked general stores, hardware and implement houses, a hotel, churches of the leading denominations, and good public schools. Its population was 325. Afterward, its population began to fall.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad shut down the depot in 1960, beginning the town’s decline.
Old post office building in Dresden, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Dresden’s post office was officially discontinued on June 29, 2007.
North of Highway 383 is served by the Oberlin USD 294 public school district, and south of the highway is served by the Hoxie USD 412 public school district.
Today, this small community still features a few old business buildings, several homes, grain elevators, agricultural buildings, and the Kyle Railroad runs through Dresden. It primarily serves as a regional freight line transporting agricultural products
Old business building in Dresden, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Dresden is located 16 miles south of Oberlin.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, July 2026.
Also See:
An old, large business building in Dresden, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W. Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol. I. Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, 1912.
Decatur County, Kansas
Fort Hays State University
Wikipedia