Minneapolis, KS

Markley's Mills became Minneapolis around 1871, and the Ottawa County city has kept its county-seat role ever since. The community was laid out in 1866, then connected to the railroad in 1878, giving the Solomon Valley town a practical route for farm goods and travelers. North Ottawa County USD 239 serves local students, while the Ottawa County Historical Museum keeps the county's older stories in town. Three miles southwest, Rock City Park's large round boulders rise from the Smoky Hills landscape, making the county seat's most distinctive geologic landmark a short drive from Main Street. Minneapolis is also part of Kansas civil-rights history through resident Lucy Browne Johnston, whose suffrage work helped win Kansas women the vote in 1912. The result is a county-seat town with a railroad beginning, a geologic park, and a larger political history.