Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Ellsworth, KS

Ellsworth is the county seat and largest city of Ellsworth County in central Kansas, sitting on the north side of the Smoky Hill River where highways K-14, K-140 and K-156 meet.

Ellsworth takes its name from Fort Ellsworth, an Army post built in 1864, and the town boomed to more than 2,000 people on railroad speculation before it was even incorporated in 1867.

Ellsworth was once called "The Wickedest Cattletown in Kansas" — an old saying about the Kansas cow towns goes, "Abilene, the first, Dodge City, the last, but Ellsworth the wickedest."

From 1871 to 1875 Ellsworth dominated the Texas cattle trade, with herds driven up from Texas to the Kansas Pacific Railroad's stockyards here for shipment to eastern markets.

The Drovers Cottage, built in Ellsworth in 1872 to serve the cattle trade, could accommodate 175 guests and stable 50 carriages and 100 horses.

In 1873 gunman Billy Thompson accidentally shot and killed Ellsworth County Sheriff Chauncey Whitney, a popular lawman who told bystanders before he died that the shooting was an accident; Thompson was later acquitted.

The 2020 census counted 3,066 people in Ellsworth living in 969 households, and the city remains the trading center for rural Ellsworth County, which had 6,376 residents.

Students in Ellsworth attend Ellsworth USD 327, whose Ellsworth Jr/Sr High School teams are known as the Bearcats.

Ellsworth and Lincoln counties host the Smoky Hills Wind Farm, completed in 2008 with 155 turbines and 250 megawatts of capacity — enough power for about 85,000 homes — followed by the 200-megawatt Post Rock Wind Farm in 2012.

Ellsworth is developing heritage tourism around its cow town past, including plans for a National Drovers Hall of Fame and an annual historically accurate cattle drive down Main Street and Douglas Avenue.