Chetolah, Kansas

Chetolah is a ghost town in Lookout Township of Ellis County, Kansas, United States.

[1] Chetolah was founded in the 1880s when promoters laid out a town site and built a hotel, livery stable, and store.

The initial settlement was unsuccessful, but the town revived in the 1890s with the purported discovery of gold in the grey Carlile Shale of the surrounding hills.

[2] A three-year gold rush ensued, and the town grew as promoters attempted various schemes for recovering alleged traces of gold from the shales along the Smoky Hill River.

Following failure of the gold rush, which both the first Kansas state geologist, Erasmus Haworth,[3] and Thomas Edison had previously declared a hoax,[4] Chetolah was abandoned and became a ghost town.