BlockFrom the record
6 National Register listings published here.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Gray County, Kansas
22 topographic sheets cover 8 settlements here, and 6 properties are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Research this county
What the record shows
- 96 topographic sheet readings cover the county's settlements.
- 6 properties here are on the National Register of Historic Places: 4 buildings and 2 structures.
- The Geographic Names Information System records 8 populated places in this county; 8 are covered by at least one topographic sheet.
Places on the National Register
6Every property in this county listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with the year it was listed and the federal nomination document.
| Photograph | Property | Type | Listed | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Barton, Welborn 'Doc', House | building | 2010 | 09001204 |
| Cimarron City Jail | building | 2019 | 100004201 | |
 | Cimarron Hotel | building | 1983 | 83000428 |
 | Gray County Courthouse (Old) | building | 2009 | 09000873 |
| Soule Canal-Gray County Segment 1 | structure | 2014 | 14000857 | |
| Soule Canal-Gray County Segment 2 | structure | 2014 | 14000858 |
Wildfire, 2015 to 2020
11 firesEvery wildfire the federal occurrence database records inside this county: 11 of them, burning about 1,595 acres. 2 started naturally and 1 was recorded as arson. Each settlement page carries the fires within five miles of it.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
The five largest, by the area the report gives. One of them was set deliberately.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 February 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 805 acres | Gray County | MONTEZUMA WILDFIRE 2017 |
| 23 February 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 749 acres | Gray County | INGALLS |
| 28 April 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 8 April 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 14 February 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 7.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 5 |
| 24 January 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 1800004 |
| 21 June 2017 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Gray County | 13 |
| 21 June 2017 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Gray County | 14 |
Every settlement page carries the fires within five miles of it - see the settlement index below.
Storms, 1955 to 2025
60 of 861 shownThe NOAA Storm Events Database holds 861 reports for this county, causing no deaths, 3 injuries and about $10,925,100 in recorded property damage. Each settlement page carries the reports that name it.
| Kind of event | Reports |
|---|---|
| Hail | 478 |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 284 |
| Tornado | 53 |
| Heavy Rain | 27 |
| Flash Flood | 8 |
| Flood | 5 |
| Funnel Cloud | 5 |
| High Wind | 1 |
The most serious of them, by death, then injury, then recorded damage. The accounts are quoted exactly as the forecast office filed them.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1995 | Tornado (F3) | 5 W Charleston | 3 hurt, $400,000 | Tornado formed one-half mile south of 2215 CDT entry. Three minor injuries when a modular home was destroyed. Other damage to several barns, sheds, implements, trees, fences, and five pivot sprinklers. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Charleston | $2,000,000 | Rear flank downdraft damage over five miles wide and 12 miles long. Wind speeds estimated to be over 100 mph. Over 150 power poles were snapped off and 40 Pivot Sprinklers were damaged or destroyed, along with trees and fences. |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F3) | Sublette | $2,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Cimarron | $850,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Copeland | $750,000 | In a 7 mile long stretch by 3 miles wide there were 10 pivot irrigation sprinklers overturned by down burst winds. In addition there were two trailers turned over and numerous tree limbs broken in this area. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Charleston | $700,000 | One half of a school roof was torn off by the high wind. At least 5 pivot irrigation sprinklers were overturned in the area. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Cimarron | $500,000 | Hail was accompanied by 70 to 90 mph winds and did extensive damage to vehicles, buildings, crops and wildlife. The largest stones were a bit bigger than a baseball with the majority golfball sized. At one location 2 miles southeast of Cimarron the siding was stripped off a house. Many fields of alfalfa and wheat were completely mowed down by the wind and hail. Numerous rabbits and birds were laying dead where cover had once stood. Also, there were 5 pivot irrigation sprinklers overturned and several trees uprooted. Trees that were not uprooted were completely stripped of leaves and even pine trees were stripped of their needles in some cases. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Montezuma | $500,000 | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ingalls | $350,000 | Six center pivot sprinklers (out of 33 in this county) were overturned in this vicinity. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Charleston | $250,000 | 2 pivot sprinklers overturned...power poles blown down...a small airplane hanger was destroyed...a combine was rolled and crumpled up. |
| March 1982 | Tornado (F2) | not stated | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 1981 | Tornado (F1) | not stated | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 1978 | Tornado (F2) | not stated | $250,000 | no account filed |
| April 1976 | Tornado (F1) | not stated | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Copeland | $200,000 | Trailer house blown over; trees uprooted; several buildings destroyed. |
| May 1996 | Hail | Ingalls | $200,000 | no account filed |
| May 1995 | Tornado (F2) | 5 W Charleston | $175,000 | A silo was blown into large machine shed, a roof was blown off a house, and numerous trees and power lines down. |
| March 2007 | Tornado (EF1) | Ensign | $160,000 | This tornado damage several Pivot irrigation sprinklers, sheds, barns, garages, trees and a corral. |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $150,000 | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Haggard | $75,000 | A pivot irrigation sprinkler was overturned by the high wind. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Montezuma | $75,000 | A center pivot was overturned by the high wind at this location. |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Cimarron | $65,000 | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Cimarron Arpt | $60,000 | QLCS tornado heavily damaged a pivot irrigation sprinkler. It was disoldged from the pivot and drug 10 yards. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ingalls Muni Arpt | $60,000 | A pivot irrigation sprinkler was overturned. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Copeland | $60,000 | A large (40,000 bushel) grain bin was blown 1/4 of a mile through a shelter belt of trees and into a house. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $50,000 | An irrigation pivot sprikler was damaged. |
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $50,000 | Spotter on cellular phone reported large tree limbs down, many business signs destroyed, and visibility in town less than one-quarter mile. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Montezuma | $40,000 | This was the fifth of five landspout tornadoes. This one struck a farm doing low end EF1 damage to a well built 60 by 100 foot building, a tractor and home. Wind speeds estimated to be about 90 MPH. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Charleston | $35,000 | Pivot irrigation sprinkler overturned. |
| April 1990 | Tornado (F1) | not stated | $25,000 | no account filed |
| March 2021 | Tornado (EF2) | Haggard | $10,000 | The thunderstorm that produced this NNW moving tornado became surface based as it moved across the surface warm front. Surface temperatures at the time may have been around 50 degrees. That is pretty unusual for this part of the world at night in March. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $10,000 | A roof was blown off a mobile home and a couple of power poles were blown over. |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $5,000 | Cattle shed moved and damaged and a fence was damaged from the flying debris. |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Montezuma | $4,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ensign | $3,500 | Empty 3000 bushel grain bin was blown across the road. |
| March 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Ensign | $3,000 | This tornado did some minor damage to a barn along its track. It started in Meade county at 742 PM CDT 3 miles west of Fowler. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Copeland | $2,500 | Power lines were down across Road Z between Roads 8 and 9. This was possibly from a land spout. |
| July 1955 | Tornado (F2) | not stated | $2,500 | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $1,500 | Several power poles were blown down. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Montezuma | $1,000 | Several power poles were blown down at Road 8 and Road CC. |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Montezuma | $1,000 | Five inch tree limbs blow down. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $1,000 | Four inch tree limbs blown down. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | $100 | Three inch tree limbs down. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Ingalls | - | A report of 1 inch diameter hail was received from the Public. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Ingalls | - | One inch hail was reported though MPING. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Cimarron | - | A report of dime to nickel size hail was received through social media. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Cimarron | - | Emergency manager reported 0.88 inch sized hail. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron Arpt | - | A public report of multiple large tree branches being blown down. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Charleston | - | Report was from AWN weather station 7 SSW Charleston. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cimarron | - | A public report of wind damaging trees, wind estimated to 60 mph. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ensign | - | Multiple public reports at the same time and location of tree branches being snapped, shingles blown off, and siding blown off. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ingalls | - | Strong winds reported. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ingalls | - | Social media picture of a blown down shed, damage to metal fencing, and snapping of large tree limbs. |
| June 2024 | Flash Flood | Ingalls | - | Street and road flooding. |
| June 2024 | Flash Flood | Ingalls | - | Flooding reported. |
| June 2024 | Heavy Rain | Ingalls | - | A report of 3.10 inches of rain reported. |
| May 2024 | Heavy Rain | Montezuma | - | Rainfall report of 1.24 inches. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Copeland | - | Mesonet station GW3813 Copeland. |
| July 2024 | Hail | Ingalls | - | Report made via social media. |
Every populated place in the county
8Named settlements recorded in the Geographic Names Information System, each with the topographic sheets covering it. Villages, hamlets and abandoned places alike. Each is shown with the nearest named watercourse or landform and the survey quadrangle it falls on.
Provenance
- Topographic sheets. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, county index, measured from the bulk metadata.
- Fire insurance maps. Library of Congress Sanborn collection, faceted to this county.
- Photographs. Each place queried individually against the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs search.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.