Le Hunt, Kansas

Le Hunt (sometimes rendered as LeHunt) is a ghost town in Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. While most of the site has been reclaimed by nature, the ruins of the United Kansas Portland Cement Company plant can still be seen today in the woods along the eastern shore of Elk City Lake.

Le Hunt, Kansas
Ghost Town
KDOT map of Montgomery County (legend). Le Hunt is located roughly where the Elk City State Park icon is situated.
Le Hunt Show map of Kansas Le Hunt Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 37°16′9″N 95°45′7″W[1]
Country	United States
State	Kansas
County	Montgomery
Elevation [1]	804 ft (245 m)
Population
• Total	0
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	620
FIPS code	20-39275 [1]
GNIS ID	484489 [1]

History

Le Hunt can trace its origins back to 1905, when the United Kansas Portland Cement Company purchased 1500 acres a few miles northwest of Independence, Kansas and built a large factory. To accommodate the factory's many workers, a company town was established by United Kansas Portland Cement Company.[2][3] The town was named after Leigh Hunt, the president of the Hunt engineering company of Michigan that had worked to construct the plant.[4][3] By 1906, the fledgling town was home to over 1000 individuals,[3] and around this time, Tom Mix (who would go on to be a famous American film actor and the star of many early Western movies) served as the small town's marshal.

Following its establishment, the United Kansas Portland Cement Company suffered several years of financial issues, largely due to the failings of the Kansas cement industry. In 1913, the local newspaper announced that the plant would be temporarily closed to make repairs and sell its surplus stock. By January 1914, the company filed for bankruptcy. In 1915, the plant was purchased by the Sunflower Portland Cement Company.[5] Following the first world war, price fluctuations caused the Sunflower Portland Cement Company to be purchased in 1918 by its rival, the Western States Portland Cement Company, which after a series of mergers and purchases, became a part of the United States Steel Corporation. These events led to the Le Hunt plant closing, its equipment being sold off, many of the homes located in Le Hunt being moved elsewhere. With limited housing and no major company to anchor the settlement, Le Hunt faded until it was nothing more than a derelict ghost town.[6]

Today, ruins of the cement plant still remain in the woods off 5000 Rd. Most prominent is the factory's long-abandoned smoke stack, which rises above the tree line.[7] According to Legends of America, "While trees and weeds try to choke out where the town's cement plant once stood, the walls, ovens and giant smokestack of the factory are still remarkably intact."[8] Ruins of old houses as well as the settlements cemetery are also present, but they have largely been reclaimed by nature.[7]

References

1. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) details for Le Hunt, Kansas; United States Geological Survey (USGS); October 13, 1978.
2. Ratzlaff, Robert K. (1996). Shumsky, Neil L. (ed.). American Cities: A Collection of Essays. 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 273–278.
3. Moore, Justing Tyler (May 2010). "United Kansas Portland Cement Company". Abandoned Oklahoma. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
4. Ratzlaff (1996), p. 276.
5. Ratzlaff (1996), pp. 280–83.
6. Ratzlaff (1996), p. 285.
7. "This Abandoned Ghost Town In Kansas Will Send Shivers Down Your Spine". Only In Your State. July 31, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
8. Weiser, Kathy (May 2010). "LeHunt – Forgotten & Haunted". Legends of America. Retrieved May 4, 2017.

Further reading

• Carvajal, Cheryl (2007). "LeHunt". Ghosts of Southeast Kansas. Dog Ear Publishing. pp. 117–20. ISBN 978-1-59858-232-1.
• Ratzlaff, Robert K. (1996). "Le Hunt, Kan.: The Making of a Cement Ghost Town". In Shumsky, Neil L. (ed.). American Cities: A Collection of Essays. 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 273–286.