Herington, KS

Herington straddles Dickinson and Morris Counties in central Kansas, a city laid out where rail lines turned open prairie into a division point. Monroe Davis Herington bought the original ranch in 1880 and gave the town his name, later dropping the second “r” from Herrington. Herington’s rail history is still easy to see in the long industrial footprint, with Union Pacific trains keeping the connection active. The Flint Hills Trail begins its western end here, and the American Discovery Trail also passes through.

World War II added an airfield to the rail town. Herington Army Air Field opened in 1942 as a staging area for B-17, B-24, and B-29 crews and equipment headed overseas. After the field closed, the property became Herington Regional Airport and an industrial site. That gives the place two big working geographies: railroad yards and an airfield built for wartime logistics. Picture Herington as a central-Kansas service city with old division-point bones, an active rail line, and a runway that still carries the memory of the bomber crews who passed through.