Halstead, KS

Halstead is a Harvey County city of 2,179 residents in the 2020 census on the Little Arkansas River, about ten minutes west of Newton along US 50 and K-89. Russian Mennonite immigrants founded the community in 1873, bringing hard red winter wheat and building the Bernard Warkentine Mill at the confluence of the Little Arkansas and Black Kettle Creek. The river has also shaped the practical side of town: an Army Corps levee project completed in 1994 protects the city from periodic flooding.

The levee is both a flood-control project and a long local path. Halstead's present-day map includes USD 440 schools, the Kansas Learning Center for Health, the public library, historical museum, downtown businesses, and the Warkentin Trail along the flood-control levee. The city also maintains parks, a municipal pool, a golf course, and an industrial park. Halstead is a small south-central Kansas city where Mennonite farming history, river engineering, school routines, and Main Street services all sit close together.