Richfield, KS

Richfield was platted in 1885 on land settlers considered fertile and became Morton County's first county seat. Its position near the Santa Fe Trail and the National Cattle Trail brought traders, freight, and cattle traffic, along with disputes over quarantine and the movement of livestock across the plains. Thirty-three miles of the historic Santa Fe Trail cross the county's Cimarron National Grassland, placing Richfield in a landscape where ranching, farming, and trail history overlap. The county seat moved to Elkhart in 1961, but Richfield remains a named center in southwest Kansas's trail country.