Hugoton

Hugoton was originally named Hugo as suggested by E.G. Collyer upon entering Stevens County. The town was promoted and platted by a banking firm from McPherson, but there was no preference for a name. Newspapers had just accounted the death of Victor Hugo, so Collyer suggested honoring him with the name of their city so it was adopted and platted. It was later changed to Hugoton to distinguish it from the town in Colorado.

The Hay Meadow Massacre was the culmination of the “Bloody Stevens” battle over the county seat being located at Hugoton or the once prospering Woodsdale, now a memory only. So shocked was the state, that even William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette came to do a story.

When the railroad reached Hugoton in 1913 it was a day of celebration, but the discovery of natural gas in 1926 put Hugoton on the world map. In 1927, Hugoton put the cap on the world’s largest gas field. The Hugoton Pool is over 1500 miles long, north and south, and 50 miles wide, east and west.