Biohazard Cleanup Near North Americus Americus, KS

Americus is a city in Lyon County in east-central Kansas, located northwest of Emporia and counted as part of the Emporia micropolitan area.

Americus was laid out in the fall of 1857 by Judge Arthur I. Baker and his 15-member Americus Town Company, and the city was incorporated in 1884.

Americus was named for Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer whose name also gave the Americas their name.

Voters made Americus the county seat in the fall of 1858, when the county was still called Breckenridge County, and the county's first courthouse was built there before the seat moved to Emporia after the 1860 election.

Americus was a station and shipping point on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, which helped it grow to between 400 and 500 people by the early 1880s.

The 2020 census counted 776 people in 324 households in Americus.

Americus is the headquarters of the North Lyon County USD 251 school district, and the district's elementary school and early learning center are located in town.

The Americus High School boys' basketball team, the Indians, went a perfect 26-0 to win the Kansas Class B state championship in 1961, before the high school closed through school district unification.

Americus is often a waypoint on the routes of the Unbound Gravel bicycle races held in the Flint Hills around Emporia.

Americus counts Marine Grant Timmerman, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II, and 1950s Major League Baseball pitcher Ross Grimsley among its notable people.