Ravanna, Kansas (original) (raw)

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Established in 1882, Ravanna, KS was elected the county seat of Garfield County. However, the citizens of the nearby town of Eminence challenged the results of the election and because of several irregularities the Kansas State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Eminence and named it the county seat. The citizens of Ravanna refused to recognize the court's ruling and would not hand over the court records to Eminence. There are several different accounts as to what happened next, but basically a group of men from Eminence forced their way into the newly constructed court house in Ravanna and removed all of the county records and set fire to the building. In 1892, it was discovered that Garfield County did not contain enough territory to be organized as a county. As a result, the state legislature declared Garfield County illegally organized and dissolved it. The territory was then annexed to Finney County. In the end both Ravanna and Eminence lost the county seat war and begin to lose population. Both towns were further devastated when they were bypassed by the railroad. The official death of Ravanna came in 1922 with the closing of the post office, the last remaining business in the town. Today all that remains of Ravanna is the crumbling ruins of the courthouse, the ruins of the school and several foundations. The Ravanna Cemetery is abandoned and forgotten as well. The road that once led to the cemetery has long since disappeared and in order to reach it I had to walk a little over a mile across a field.