![]() With better roads and automobiles, more and more people began to drive to Ellsworth to do business, and the few retailers in the small town began to leave. Sunday afternoons were slated for baseball games, which were held in a cow pasture just south of the Black Wolf Bridge.īut, like many other small farming communities, Black Wolf’s heydays would soon come to an end. When electricity finally arrived in Black Wolf in 1945, the popular dances began to break up by about 2:00 a.m. These large dances usually lasted until daybreak so the people could see their way home. In the summer, they were held on outdoor platforms, in colder weather inside a machinery barn. For days, the only way to get around the town was by boat.įor years, Black Wolf was noted for its Saturday night dances. Though the elevators and the Black Wolf store tried to pump the water out of the places, it was impossible, as the flood reached a crest of 12 feet above the river bridge. Though the town of Black Wolf had suffered previous floods, the worst came in 1938 when high floodwaters descended from the Smoky Hill River. The robbers locked the Artases in the vault and made their escape with $500 in cash. Her husband told her to leave “Fast! This is a hold-up!” However, she refused, thinking her husband was joking. Artas, who worked at the bank as a bookkeeper, arrived. ![]() In the 1920s, Black Wolf gained national attention when two masked robbers walked into the Black Wolf State Bank and demanded cash from cashier Ray Artas, who was at the bank alone. However, just ten years later, the population had dropped dramatically and the town was already working to revive itself. However, local coal would be utilized for several decades.īy 1910, the town boasted a population of 100 people, a money order post office, telegraph and express offices, telephone connections, a grain elevator, and good local trade. This and other mines located along the Smoky Hill River, were never large operations, as the coal was situated near the surface and sold only locally. The Black Wolf Coal Mine was located two miles south of the town in the bluffs near Black Wolf Creek. Other businesses included a lime kiln called Graham & Beths, and a blacksmith shop owned by M. A farmer named John Riley soon began to sell farm machinery and later built a livery stable. The two also later built a hotel called the Wisconsin House, as well as a two-story building, which contained a mercantile store on the lower level and housed the post office. ![]() The O’Connell & Foote lumber yard was established which carried a full line of building supplies. ![]() A grain elevator was built in 1879 by two men by the name of Jung and Giessler. However, by the next year, several business buildings had been erected and streets laid out. In 1879, there was little of the town other than the railroad siding and the post office, which was established in April. The town was said to have gotten its name from an Indian Chief named Black Wolf, whose tribe had a camp on Cow Creek to the north of the town. Located halfway between Ellsworth and Wilson, the town also supported limited coal production in the 1880s, as well as numerous farmers and ranchers in the area. Situated on the north bank of the Smoky Hill River in Ellsworth County, Kansas, Black Wolf got its start as a station on the Union Pacific Railroad in the late 1870s.
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