Customer Reviews

Ballots and Bullets: The Bloody County Seat Wars of Kansas

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Southwestern Kansas is a place that is known for its vast farm lands, gas fields and little else. Small towns struggle to survive the changes that resulted in most of its people to flee to the larger cities where work could be found. However, over a century ago, this remote part of the Sunflower State was the scene of bitter conflicts with regards to the setting up of new county seats in counties that were created by the Legislature. Lands around towns were coveted by outsiders who wanted to make money from the sale of lots of the would be county seats and bonds for the laying of railroad tracks that would potentially passed through these towns, thus enriching the speculators. This book gives a good overview of the gunfights and election shenanigans that occurred in this area during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Legendary figures such as Bat Masterson are weaved into this story and details regarding ambushes and retaliatory raids along with venomous editorials from these towns' newspapers are told with great specificity. It was interesting in that much of the action regarding the fighting took place in "No Man's Land" which is today's Oklahoma panhandle.

The role of government in these disputes during this era was inept. Rigged elections, sloppy prosecution of murderers and favoritism are laid out for the reader to see.

The book is 221 pages long and is well-documented with comprehensive end notes, index, bibliography and a detailed map of the disputed areas. I highly recommend this book for its unique subject matter.

This book is absolutely facinating. I have lived in western Kansas for 12 years and always wondered why there were so many different roads going to absolutely every little one horse town. I realized that there were several towns that are now just footnotes in history that were once bustling places. Many of these towns were in much nicer locations than the towns currently located in the area. There is also some lingering animosity between towns and rivalries are fierce. The unincorporated portions of OK panhandle are still very desolate and isolated. It was eye opening.