Morton County, Kansas: History
=== Early history ===
For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau.
In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France, but keeping title to about 7,500 square miles. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre.
In 1848, after the Mexican–American War, the territorial gain in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico brought into the United States all or part of land for ten future states, including southwest Kansas.
From 1821 to late 1860s, the Santa Fe Trail was active across Morton County.
In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. In 1886, Morton County was carved out of Seward County and organized, and named for Oliver Morton, who was a United States senator from Indiana from 1867 to 1877.
The initial organization of Morton County was marked by controversy over the location of the county seat. Two petitions were submitted, one for Frisco with 1,488 signatures and another for Richfield with 1,473. Due to discrepancies in the number of signatures compared to eligible voters, an investigation delayed the decision until November 1886, when Richfield was officially declared the temporary county seat. Following this, Richfield was confirmed as the permanent county seat in a February 1887 election, amidst reports of political maneuvering.
Settlement in Morton County came largely from other parts of Kansas. The county experienced significant fluctuations in population due to economic conditions, dropping from 2,560 in the years following its organization to as low as 304 over the next decade.
In the 1930s, the prosperity of the area was severely affected by its location within the Dust Bowl. This catastrophe intensified the economic impact of the Great Depression in the region. Morton County was the most devastated county in the Dust Bowl and lost almost one-half of its population in the 1930s. The U.S. government purchased some of the impacted and abandoned land and eventually incorporated it into the Comanche National Grassland.
In 1961, the county seat was moved from Richfield to Elkhart.