Greenwood County, Kansas

Greenwood County is a county in Kansas, United States, about 75 miles east of Wichita. It had a
population of 6,016 at the 2020 census, an estimated 5,826 by 2025, and covers 1,153 square miles
(2,990 km2) centred near 37°52′N 96°16′W.

Eureka is the county seat and the county’s most populous city; its postal code is 67045. The
county holds 7 incorporated cities and 11 unincorporated places, including six recognized ghost
towns, spread across 15 townships. It runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 20073.

Towns & Villages in Greenwood County

Greenwood County has 18 named places on record: 7 incorporated cities, 2 Census-designated
places, 4 unincorporated communities with post-office history but no CDP status, and 5 recognized
ghost towns. The Type column uses CDP for Census-designated place and Unincorp. for a community
with no formal boundary; several older place lists for this county included names such as Bisbee,
Blodgett, Burkett, Hilltop, Kenbro, Rocky Ford and Sallyards, none of which the U.S. Census Bureau
or the Kansas Historical Society records as a distinct Greenwood County place, so they are left off
this table.

Severy and Climax share ZIP code 67137, and Lamont has no post office of its own so mail there is
routed through Madison’s 66855. Quincy the unincorporated community sits inside Quincy
Township, which is otherwise open farmland — the two share a name but the township is not
built around the settlement in the way Eureka Township is built around the county seat.

Townships

Greenwood County is divided into 15 civil townships. The city of Eureka is governmentally
independent of Eureka Township and is not counted in the township’s population figure below;
the other 2020 township totals are the Census Bureau’s county-subdivision counts.

ZIP Codes

• 67045 — Eureka, the county seat
• 66855 — Madison (also serves Lamont, which has no ZIP of its own)
• 67137 — Severy (also serves Climax)
• 66853 — Hamilton
• 67047 — Fall River
• 66870 — Virgil

Piedmont, Neal, Reece, Tonovay and Quincy have no ZIP code of their own; each closed its post
office decades ago and mail there is now delivered under the nearest incorporated town’s
code. The five ghost towns — Teterville, Ivanpah, Lapland, Thrall and Utopia — lost
their post offices between 1904 and 1962 and carry no ZIP at all today.

Geography

Greenwood County sits in the Flint Hills of southeast Kansas, a belt of tallgrass prairie over
shallow limestone that has never been broken by the plow, still grazed much as it was in the 1800s.
Of its 1,153 square miles, 1,143 are land and 9.3 are water, about 0.8 percent, mostly held in Fall
River Lake, formed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam on the Fall River northwest of Fall River
city, and in the Verdigris River, which crosses the county’s northeast corner. It is Kansas’s
fifth-largest county by land area.

Lyon County borders it to the north, Coffey County to the northeast, Woodson County to the east,
Wilson County to the southeast, Elk County to the south, Butler County to the west, and Chase
County to the northwest. Lyon
County, Coffey County, Woodson County, Wilson County, Elk County, Butler County and Chase County all border Greenwood directly.

Demographics

Greenwood County had a population of 6,016 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 5,826 residents by 2025, continuing a long decline from its early-20th-century oil-boom
peak. Eureka and Madison are the two largest communities, together holding half the county’s
population. Density works out to roughly 5.3 people per square mile of land, among the lowest in
Kansas. Eureka’s own median household income, $34,329 in the 2016–2020 American
Community Survey, runs well below the Kansas state figure of $70,333 (2023 ACS), reflecting the
county’s rural, agriculture- and oil-dependent economy.

Economy & Local Life

Cattle ranching on the county’s Flint Hills grassland and oil and natural gas production
remain the backbone of the local economy; Greenwood County has produced oil since the early 1900s,
and pumpjacks are still a common sight along its county roads. Eureka Downs, a horse-racing track
and fairgrounds on the edge of the county seat, has hosted races and the Greenwood County Fair for
generations. The historic Greenwood Hotel in downtown Eureka, built as a cattle-trading center,
survives as a landmark of that era. Fall River Lake and Fall River State Park, about four miles
northwest of Fall River city, draw boaters, campers and anglers each summer and are the county’s
main tourism draw.

History

The Kansas Territorial legislature established Greenwood County on 25 August 1855, naming it for
Alfred B. Greenwood, a U.S. congressman from Arkansas who had supported Kansas statehood. Eureka
was laid out in 1867 and incorporated in 1870, taking its name from the Greek for “I have
found it.” Greenwood City, founded in 1871 on the Verdigris River near the county’s
center, was a rough frontier settlement that emptied out once the railroad was routed through
nearby Toronto instead; the first railroad reached the county itself in 1879.

Oil drove the county’s early-20th-century growth. The Teeter Oil Field, discovered around
1920 and named for landowner James Teter, gave rise to the boom town of Teterville in Salem
Township; its post office ran from 1927 until 1962, after which the settlement was abandoned. Four
other communities — Ivanpah, Lapland, Thrall and Utopia — lost their post offices
between 1904 and 1962 as the rural population thinned out, leaving Greenwood County with five
recognized ghost towns today, more than most Kansas counties its size.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Greenwood County. U.S. Route 54 runs east–west through the
county and meets K-99, which runs north–south through Eureka, just east of the county seat.

• Wichita — about 75 miles west
• Emporia — about 40 miles north
• Independence — about 45 miles southeast
• Winfield — about 55 miles southwest

Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, the nearest major commercial airport, is roughly
75 miles west of Eureka. Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, running between Chicago and Los Angeles,
stops at Newton, about 90 miles west, the closest station to the county.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Greenwood County located?
It sits in the Flint Hills of southeast Kansas, about 75 miles east of Wichita, bordered by Lyon,
Coffey, Woodson, Wilson, Elk, Butler and Chase counties.

What is the population of Greenwood County?
6,016 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 5,826.

How big is Greenwood County?
1,153 square miles (2,990 km2), of which 1,143 square miles are land — Kansas’s
fifth-largest county by land area.

What is the county seat of Greenwood County?
Eureka is the county seat and the county’s most populous city.

How many towns are in Greenwood County?
Seven incorporated cities — Eureka, Madison, Severy, Hamilton, Fall River, Virgil and Climax
— plus the CDPs of Piedmont and Neal, four smaller unincorporated communities, and five
recognized ghost towns.

What ZIP codes does Greenwood County use?
67045 for Eureka, 66855 for Madison, 67137 for Severy and Climax, 66853 for Hamilton, 67047 for
Fall River and 66870 for Virgil.

What is Greenwood County known for?
Flint Hills cattle ranching, early-20th-century oil production, and Fall River Lake’s boating
and camping.

More counties in this state: Towns and
villages in Kansas.