Ravanna, Kansas: Ghost Town

Nestled away in a remote part of southwestern Kansas, only a couple of seemingly ancient ruins remain in this shadow of a past town. The history of Ravanna goes back to the late 1800s, but its history came to an end almost as quickly as it started.

Founded in 1882, this town was not originally called Ravanna. Initially, it was named Bulltown, after an early settler, John Bull. As the story goes, locals were not fond of the name and it was changed to Cowland. That didn’t stick either and at a town meeting in 1885, a resident by the name of James Cross suggested that the town be named after his hometown in Ohio, Ravenna. For an unknown reason, perhaps an honest misspelling, the town went on to become known as Ravanna.

In its early days, Ravanna was a lively town. Historical records say that the town had its own newspaper, a general store, a bank, a schoolhouse and even a cheese plant.

Not just a ghost town, but a ghost county? Garfield County, which officially formed in 1887, included Ravanna and surrounding areas. Residents of Ravanna wanted claims to the county seat and according to the Kansas State Historical Society, Ravanna won the county seat spot in a November 1887 election, but not without controversy. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that 60 votes were cast by deceased voters and the nearby town of Eminence was awarded the county seat.

Around the time of the ruling, construction of the Garfield County Courthouse in Ravanna was nearing completion. The Courthouse never got much use, perhaps only about one year or so. The Garfield County Commission had their final meeting at the courthouse in Ravanna in October of 1889, before Eminence took over as the county seat.

If this was the beginning of the end of Ravanna, it might be surprising to note that Garfield County had an even shorter existence. In March of 1893, Garfield County was annexed to Finney County. Sometime around 1900, it is reported that the Ravanna courthouse burned down, closing out yet another chapter in Ravanna’s history. Today, some rubble from the courthouse remains in an open field.

Ravanna managed to survive into the early 20th century, but its history was slowly coming to a close. The Ravanna post office closed in 1922 and the Ravanna schoolhouse shut down, sometime in the early 1930s. The schoolhouse slowly crumbled over the years, with only a few partial pillars of brick remaining as of September 2019.

Like many early towns across the Great Plains around the turn of the 20th century, Ravanna slowly withered away. Although very little remains to the naked eye, the stories of this once bustling town will live on.

A special thanks goes out to the following sources for information in this video:

HutchNews.com – “Visitors come to see what’s left of short-lived SW Kan. town”
https://www.hutchnews.com/article/201…

Kansas Memory / Kansas Historical Society – Cities and towns – Ravanna
https://www.kansasmemory.org/category…

kansasghosttowns.blogspot.com – Dead towns of Kansas
http://kansasghosttowns.blogspot.com/…

Wikipedia – Ravanna, Kansas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravanna…