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Cawker City, Kansas downtown and water towerPhoto: Dan Brown · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Cawker City

Cawker City’s post office opened in 1870, and 38% of its homes were built before 1940

2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 14 buildings. Below: maps from 1885 on and the census since 1880.

1870first post office
2on the National Register
38%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Cawker City began

When was Cawker City founded?

1870

The Cawker City post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,039 in 18802020 census: 457156 years
Founding year: the first Cawker City post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Cawker City’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cawker City are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Mapped building by building5 fire insurance maps, 1885 to 1911, drew every building in Cawker City.Old housesHalf of Cawker City’s homes were built before 1957.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cawker City’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cawker City’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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Every building

Cawker City, building by building, 1885–1911

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Cawker City fire insurance map, 1885, sheet 11885Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Cawker City came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cawker City.

Read it all →

Cawker City was founded in 1870. According to tradition, Colonel E. H. Cawker won naming rights for the town with a winning hand at poker. Cawker City was incorporated as a city in 1874. The first post office in Cawker City was established in June 1870.

The city previously served many families living on small farms. Many young adults were leaving to find work elsewhere. In the area family sizes decreased and farm plot sizes increased. These factors caused the community's population to decline.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cawker City, 1870 to 1962

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1870Post officeThe Cawker City post office opens
  3. 1885BuiltOld Cawker City Library is built
  4. 20th century
  5. 1962On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Cawker City, decade by decade

Today2 recent
TwineBallCawkerKs2013TwineBallCawkerKsCawker City, Kansas downtown and water tower2012Cawker City, Kansas downtown and water tower
On the map

Cawker City on the map, 1962 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cawker City. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Cawker City on the 1962 USGS mapCawker City on the 1980 USGS map1962Cawker City sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cawker City.

On the National Register

2 listings protect 15 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
15
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Old Cawker City Library
Old Cawker City Library, built 1885Wisconsin Street Historic District
BuildingsDistricts
Old Cawker City LibraryBuilt 1885
Wisconsin Street Historic DistrictDistrict

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Cawker City, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,039

Between 457 and 1,039 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cawker City’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Cawker City’s history

What year was Cawker City founded?

The Cawker City post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Cawker City?

Two places: the Old Cawker City Library (listed 1973) and the Wisconsin Street Historic District (1986).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.