Biohazard Cleanup Near North Arma Arma, KS

Arma is a city in Crawford County in the coal country of southeastern Kansas, within the Pittsburg micropolitan area.

Arma began in 1886 as Rust, a coal-mining camp just three blocks wide and four blocks long set beside the railroad, and a town was platted on 65 acres in February 1891 as a stop for the Fort Scott & Southern Railroad.

The community took the name Arma from W. F. Armacost, an original landowner who in November 1891 deeded land north and east of the camp to the Missouri Pacific Railroad for a new depot.

Arma was incorporated on May 18, 1909, as a city of the third class, and grew rapidly with the coal trade, jumping from 327 people in 1910 to about 1,742 by 1915.

On November 13, 1915, an explosion at the Sheridan Coal Company's Mine No. 7, about a mile and a half southeast of Arma, caused a major cave-in and killed 31 miners, one of the worst mining disasters in Kansas history.

Arma's population peaked at 2,180 in the 1920 census, during the height of the Crawford County coal boom.

As of the 2020 census, Arma had 1,407 residents living in 632 households.

The city covers about 1.14 square miles in Washington Township in northern Crawford County.

Arma's first post office opened in 1891 but was discontinued in 1906, three years before the town incorporated.