Beach Valley, Peketon County

Carol Jenkner

Santa Fe Trail Center

 

            To all the ghost town hunters out there: where was Beach Valley? It was in Peketon County. Does that help? Also in Peketon County, Kansas were Big Turkey, Kiowa, and Pawnee Fork. Do any of those names ring a bell? Did you know that Marion and Washington Counties took in part of eastern Colorado at one time? There are lots of mysteries to unravel regarding early Kansas and its counties.

            Here is a little Kansas history: In 1855 when Kansas was a territory, only about one-fourth of the state was settled with platted and populated counties and towns; there were thirty-four named counties. Many of these were not located where they are today. The western two-thirds of the territory was unnamed in 1857 although it had been Washington County in 1855. By 1860 several counties had been added, and several changed; Peketon County covered the southwestern two-thirds of the state and the top northwestern portion was unnamed. In 1865, Peketon disappeared and Marion took its place; counties again changed names, sizes and positions. By 1867, the state counties began to look more like they do today and it was only the western one-fourth of the state that did not have counties laid out. By 1893-1904 the counties had finally been sorted out and look much as they do today. It took much legislation and several county seat wars to finally get all the towns and counties established.

            Back to Beach Valley. It was the chosen location for the post office and voting place in the very large Peketon County. It was a ranching operation run by Mr. A. Beach and it was the designated site of a post office near what is now Lyons. That explains the name Beach Valley. The origins of the name Peketon, however, remain unknown.