Montgomery County, Kansas

Montgomery County is a county in Kansas, United States, on the Oklahoma state line in the southeast corner of the state. It had a population of 31,486 at the 2020 census and covers 651 square miles (1,690 km2), of which 644 square miles is land and 8.0 square miles is water, centred near 37°12′N 95°44′W.

Independence is the county seat, and its postal code is 67301; Coffeyville is the county’s most populous city. The county holds nine incorporated cities, several unincorporated communities and census-designated places, and twelve civil townships. It sits in the Central time zone, and its FIPS code is 20125.

Towns & Villages in Montgomery County

Montgomery County has nine incorporated cities, two census-designated places (Sycamore and Wayside), and a scatter of unincorporated communities and rail sidings dating to the county’s coal and gas boom of the early 1900s. Some of the smallest names below never grew past a depot and a grain elevator.

Coffeyville is Montgomery County’s largest city, but Independence is the county seat. A few names from older lists of the county — Crane, Fruitland, Glendale MH Estates, Brookside MH Estates, Owen, and Videtta Spur — could not be independently confirmed as current place names and are omitted here; see notes.

Townships

Fawn Creek Township holds an unusual claim to fame: Google Maps and several other mapping services use it as a default reference point for U.S. map searches when a query can’t be geolocated, a quirk of early mapping-database defaults rather than any official designation.

ZIP Codes

• 67301 — Independence (county seat)
• 67337 — Coffeyville
• 67335 — Cherryvale
• 67333 — Caney
• 67341 — Dearing
• 67364 — Tyro
• 67344 — Elk City
• 67347 — Havana
• 67351 — Liberty

Sycamore, Wayside, and the county’s unincorporated communities have no post office of their own and are served by the ZIP code of the nearest incorporated city.

Geography

Montgomery County sits in the Osage Plains of southeast Kansas, a rolling, largely open landscape crossed by the Verdigris River, which runs north to south through the county’s eastern half and holds Kansas’s lowest point in elevation within the county. Elk City Lake, formed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam on Elk River near Independence, is the county’s main reservoir and recreation area. The Missouri Pacific and Santa Fe rail lines, built during the natural-gas and coal boom of the 1900s–1910s, shaped the county’s early town pattern of small depot communities strung along the tracks.

Montgomery County borders Wilson County to the north, Neosho County to the northeast, Labette County to the east, Nowata County, Oklahoma, to the south, Chautauqua County to the west, and Elk County to the northwest.

Demographics

The county’s 31,486 residents at the 2020 census made it one of the more populous counties in rural southeast Kansas. Coffeyville (9,376) and Independence (8,381) together hold well over half the county’s population; the remaining seven cities and the unincorporated townships account for the rest. Median household income runs well below the Kansas median of $70,333, reflecting the county’s post-industrial economy and rural townships. Population density is roughly 49 people per square mile of land.

Economy & Local Life

Coffeyville’s economy still carries the imprint of the early-1900s natural-gas boom that drew glass, brick, and cement plants to the county; CVR Energy operates a large oil refinery there today, one of the area’s biggest employers alongside Coffeyville Regional Medical Center and Coffeyville Community College. Independence is home to Independence Community College and a historic downtown built on the same gas-era wealth, including the Booth Theatre and the Riverside Park zoo. Agriculture — cattle grazing and wheat and soybean cropland — remains the primary land use outside the two cities.

History

Montgomery County was organized on February 26, 1867, and named for Richard Montgomery, the American Revolutionary War general killed leading the assault on Quebec in 1775. Coffeyville gained national notoriety on October 5, 1892, when the Dalton Gang attempted to rob two banks simultaneously and was shot down by armed townspeople, a defining event in the city’s history still marked at the Dalton Defenders Museum. The discovery of natural gas near Independence and Coffeyville in the 1890s triggered a rapid industrial boom that built much of the county’s surviving brick architecture.

Getting There

U.S. Routes 75, 160, 166, 169, and 400 all cross Montgomery County, giving it an unusually dense highway network for a rural Kansas county; US-75 and US-169 run north–south through Independence and Coffeyville respectively, while US-160 and US-400 run east–west.

• Tulsa, Oklahoma — 75 miles south
• Wichita, Kansas — 100 miles northwest
• Joplin, Missouri — 55 miles east
• Bartlesville, Oklahoma — 30 miles south

The nearest commercial airport is Tulsa International Airport; Coffeyville and Independence both have small municipal airfields for general aviation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Montgomery County, Kansas?
It is in the southeast corner of Kansas, on the Oklahoma border, roughly 75 miles south of Wichita.

What is the population of Montgomery County?
31,486 at the 2020 census.

How big is Montgomery County?
651 square miles (1,690 km2), of which 644 square miles is land.

What is the county seat of Montgomery County?
Independence, though Coffeyville is the county’s largest city.

How many towns are in Montgomery County?
Nine incorporated cities, plus two census-designated places and several smaller unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes are in Montgomery County?
Nine, one per incorporated city, from 67301 (Independence) to 67364 (Tyro).

Why is Coffeyville famous?
It’s the site of the failed 1892 Dalton Gang bank robbery, one of the most famous outlaw shootouts in the Old West.

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