Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Goessel, KS

Goessel is a small city in Marion County in central Kansas with deep Mennonite roots.

The Goessel area was settled in 1874 by German-speaking Mennonite families emigrating en masse from the village of Alexanderwohl in Russia, who founded eight communal villages; Goessel grew up on the site of the village of Gnadenfeld, meaning 'Grace Field.'

The Alexanderwohl immigrants brought Turkey Red winter wheat seed with them from Russia, and that hardy wheat became the dominant wheat of Kansas, helping build the state's wheat economy.

The town took the name Goessel in 1895, honoring Captain Kurt von Goessel, who went down with his ship Elbe in the English Channel; the Postal Department accepted the name on April 13, 1895.

Goessel was platted in 1910 with about 100 residents and was not incorporated until 1952.

The 2020 census counted 556 people in Goessel; in 2010 the town had 539 people living in 248 households.

Goessel is home to the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum, an eight-building complex dedicated in 1974 that preserves the story of the immigrants with artifacts from early Mennonite homes, farms, schools and churches.

The museum's Turkey Red Wheat Palace displays antique farm equipment and a Wheat Straw Liberty Bell that Goessel Mennonites built for the Smithsonian Institution to commemorate the United States Bicentennial.

Each year the museum hosts Goessel Threshing Days, an old-fashioned threshing show demonstrating the farm machinery of the pioneer era.

Students attend Goessel USD 411 schools, and Goessel High School — whose teams are the blue-and-white Bluebirds — was named a U.S. News Bronze Medal school in 2007 and 2008.