{"id":3725,"date":"2023-05-29T22:07:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T22:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=3725"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:45:47","slug":"meade-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/meade-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Meade County, Kansas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meade County is a county in Kansas, United States, on the state&#8217;s southwestern High Plains near the Oklahoma line. It had a population of 4,055 at the 2020 census and covers 978 square miles (2,530 km2) of land, centred near 37&deg;14&prime;N 100&deg;22&prime;W.<\/p>\n<p>Meade is the county seat and its postal code is 67864. The county has three incorporated cities and one unincorporated community, and sits in the Central time zone (FIPS code 20-119).<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Meade County<\/h2>\n<p>Meade County has four named places: three incorporated cities and one unincorporated community. No place in the county reaches CDP status.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Meade<\/td>\n<td>City &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>1,635<\/td>\n<td>67864<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Plains<\/td>\n<td>City<\/td>\n<td>1,073<\/td>\n<td>67869<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fowler<\/td>\n<td>City<\/td>\n<td>523<\/td>\n<td>67844<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Missler<\/td>\n<td>Unincorp.<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>67864<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Two older place names sometimes attached to Meade County &mdash; Collano and Hobart &mdash; could not be independently verified against current records and are omitted here rather than guessed at.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>67864 &mdash; Meade (also serves Missler)<\/li>\n<li>67869 &mdash; Plains<\/li>\n<li>67844 &mdash; Fowler<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These three ZIP codes cover the entire county; there is no separate code for any unincorporated place.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Meade County lies on the mixed-grass High Plains of southwestern Kansas, a mostly flat to gently rolling landscape cut by Crooked Creek and the Cimarron River in the county&#8217;s south. Of its total area, 978 square miles are land and 1.3 square miles are water. Meade State Park and Meade State Lake, built around the Salt Well &mdash; a saltwater sinkhole that appeared in 1879 &mdash; sit just south of the county seat.<\/p>\n<p>Meade County borders <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/gray-county\/\">Gray County<\/a> to the north, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/ford-county-kansas\/\">Ford County<\/a> to the northeast, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/clark-county-kansas\/\">Clark County<\/a> to the east, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/seward-county\/\">Seward County<\/a> to the west and <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/haskell-county\/\">Haskell County<\/a> to the northwest, with Beaver County, Oklahoma across the state line to the south.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>The county&#8217;s 2020 population of 4,055 makes Meade, the seat, its largest community at 1,635 residents, followed by Plains at 1,073. Median household income in Meade County runs below the Kansas median of $70,333, reflecting the county&#8217;s agricultural economic base. Population density is about 4.1 people per square mile, among the more sparsely settled counties on the Kansas side of the High Plains.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Irrigated and dryland farming &mdash; wheat, corn, milo and soybeans &mdash; together with cattle feeding drive the county economy, supported by grain elevators in Meade, Plains and Fowler. Center-pivot irrigation drawing on the Ogallala Aquifer underlies much of the county&#8217;s cropland, though declining aquifer levels are a standing concern for local growers. Meade County USD 226 and USD 483 (Fowler) operate the county&#8217;s public schools, and the Meade County Hospital in Meade is the county&#8217;s main health care provider. The Meade County Fair, held each summer at the county fairgrounds in Meade, is the county&#8217;s largest annual community event, alongside Plains&#8217; fall harvest celebrations.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>Nomadic Plains peoples hunted bison across the area for centuries before Kansas Territory was organized in 1854 and Kansas entered the Union in 1861. Meade County was organized on March 20, 1873, and named for Union general George G. Meade. In 1874 the Lone Tree Massacre took place along Crooked Creek, and during the 1880s and 1890s the Dalton Gang used a dugout hideout near present-day Meade as a base between raids &mdash; the site is preserved today as the Dalton Gang Hideout museum. A saltwater sinkhole known locally as the Salt Well opened without warning on March 16, 1879, swallowing part of a farm pasture and later becoming a regional curiosity. Like much of southwestern Kansas, the county was hit hard by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which drove significant population loss the county has never fully recovered from.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>US Route 54 crosses the county east-west through Meade and Plains, and US Route 160 runs along the county&#8217;s southern tier through Fowler; both meet US Route 283 running north-south through Meade.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dodge City, Kansas &mdash; 40 miles northeast<\/li>\n<li>Liberal, Kansas &mdash; 30 miles southwest<\/li>\n<li>Garden City, Kansas &mdash; 55 miles north<\/li>\n<li>Guymon, Oklahoma &mdash; 45 miles south<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The nearest commercial airport is Dodge City Regional Airport; Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport also serves the area.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Meade County, Kansas?<\/strong><br \/>It is in the southwestern corner of Kansas, bordering Oklahoma to the south.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Meade County?<\/strong><br \/>4,055 people, per the 2020 census.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Meade County?<\/strong><br \/>978 square miles of land (2,530 km2), plus 1.3 square miles of water.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Meade County?<\/strong><br \/>Meade is the county seat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns are in Meade County?<\/strong><br \/>Three incorporated cities &mdash; Meade, Plains and Fowler &mdash; plus the unincorporated community of Missler.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes are in Meade County?<\/strong><br \/>67864 (Meade), 67869 (Plains) and 67844 (Fowler).<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the Dalton Gang Hideout?<\/strong><br \/>A preserved 1880s dugout near Meade where the outlaw Dalton Gang reportedly hid between train and bank robberies; it&#8217;s now a small museum.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/kansas\/\">Towns and villages in Kansas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meade County is a county in Kansas, United States, on the state&#8217;s southwestern High Plains near the Oklahoma line. It had a population of 4,055 at the 2020 census and covers 978 square miles (2,530 km2) of land, centred near 37&deg;14&prime;N 100&deg;22&prime;W. Meade is the county seat and its postal code is 67864. The county [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in Meade County, Kansas","_seopress_titles_desc":"Meade County, Kansas: population, ZIP codes, towns and villages, geography, history and getting there in this High Plains county.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-3725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-kansas","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11435,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725\/revisions\/11435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}