Leoti, Kansas

April, 1885, a company of men in Garden City, conceived the idea of crossing the long stretch of prairie lying to the northward and starting a town, which, in their minds, was soon to rival Chicago in commercial importance. Surveys were made and within a half mile of the exact geographical center of Wichita County a town site was laid out and improvements at once began. This embryo city was very aptly called Leoti (Prairie Flower).

The early history of Leoti, if truthfully written, would fill a volume of interesting and exciting reading. The cowboy raids, the drunken revels and the hotly contested county seat fight, culminating in the memorable shooting affair at Coronado on Sunday morning, February 11, 1887, marked an epoch in her history which in its way, has never been paralleled.