Elmo, Kansas
Elmo, Kansas | |
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Unincorporated community | |
Elmo | |
Coordinates: 38°41′3″N 97°13′48″W / 38.68417°N 97.23000°WCoordinates: 38°41′3″N 97°13′48″W / 38.68417°N 97.23000°W[1] | |
Country | United States |
State | Kansas |
County | Dickinson |
Elevation[1] | 1,355 ft (413 m) |
Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
• Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
Area code | 785 |
FIPS code | 20-20825 [1] |
GNIS feature ID | 0476978 [1] |
Elmo is a small unincorporated community in Dickinson County, Kansas, United States.[1] Elmo is located 15 miles (24 km) south of Abilene at the northwest corner of K-15 and K-4.
History
Elmo started about one mile from of its current location, but the source of the name is unknown. When the Missouri Pacific Railroad was built through the area, the railroad didn't like the Elmo location because it was sloping ground, so it built a station at nearby Banner City (current location of Elmo).[2] The old Elmo post office was moved to Banner City around 1887. The name Banner City already existed in Jackson and Trego counties, so eventually the Elmo name replaced it.[3][4] The post office was opened in Elmo on December 16, 1884, and remained in operation until it was discontinued on May 6, 1966.[5] The railroad was removed in the 1990s.
In 1899, Elias Sellerds discovered a well-preserved trove of insect fossils about 3 miles south of Elmo in the Lower-Permian Elmo-Limestone member of the Wellington-Formation.[3][6] In 1925, Frank M. Carpenter begins studying the fossil bed.[7][8] In 1928, Robert John Tillyard researched the same fossil bed.[9] The Elmo site has produced tens of thousands of specimens, with more than 150 species of insects described, including large fossils of Meganeuropsis.[10] The site is located on private land and closed to the public.[11]
In 2014, a group of locals adopted the Sesame Street character Elmo as its mascot to be placed on a new sign.[12]
Geography
Elmo is located at the northwest corner of K-15 and K-4 (also known as 600 Ave in Dickinson County), which is 15 miles (24 km) south of Abilene or 14 miles (23 km) west of Herington.
See also
- Banner Township, Dickinson County, Kansas (location of Elmo)
- Mid-June 1992 tornado outbreak
Further reading
- Carlton Area History: Carlton - Elmo - Holland, Dickinson County, Kansas; Carlton Book Committee; Bell Books; 1995.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) details for Elmo, Kansas; United States Geological Survey (USGS); October 13, 1978.
- ↑ Standard Atlas of Dickinson County, Kansas; Geo. A. Ogle & Co; Page 32 of 63; 1901.]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kansas town of Elmo now quiet after a busy past; Lawrence Journal-World; January 16, 2012.
- ↑ Blackmar, Frank Wilson (1912). Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. Standard Publishing Company. p. 584.
- ↑ "Kansas Post Offices, 1828-1961 (archived)". Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
- ↑ A type catalog of Fossil Invertebrates (Arthropoda: Hexapoda) in the Yale Peabody Museum - Postilla 209; Russell D. White; Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University; 1994/1995.
- ↑ The Permian Insect Fossils of Elmo, Kansas; Emporia State University; 2000.
- ↑ "Fossil Insects". Kansas Geological Survey (KU). Retrieved 8 June 2014.
- ↑ R. J. Tillyard; Winds of Kansas.
- ↑ The entomofauna of the Lower Permian fossil insect beds of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA; Roy J. Beckemeyer1 and Joseph D. Hall; 2007.
- ↑ Elmo Fossil Beds; Winds of Kansas.
- ↑ Town of Elmo makes new sign; KWCH tv; July 3, 2014.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elmo, Kansas. |
- St Columba Catholic Church
- Elmo, Kansas, Kansas Ghost Towns
- Historic Images of Elmo, Special Photo Collections at Wichita State University Library
- Dickinson County Maps: Current, Historic, KDOT
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