They named the settlement after Andrew J. Hoisington, one of the company partners and a prominent businessman in nearby Great Bend.

[4] The post office, relocated from nearby Buena Vista, was renamed Hoisington in April 1887 as was the railroad station, originally named Monon, by 1889.

The railroad, known by that point as the Missouri Pacific, continued to play a central role in the city's development, employing 1,600 local men by 1911.

Today the tornado's path can still be seen from the air due to the lack of trees, some empty lots, and the newer houses, which are larger and more spaced out than the older ones.

Hoisington lies on the southern edge of the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains.

Blood Creek, which flows east into nearby Cheyenne Bottoms, passes immediately south of the city.

[10] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.15 square miles (2.98 km2), all of it land.

The Hoisington Subdivision of the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad runs east–west around the southern side of the city.

[25][26] Radio station KHOK is licensed to Hoisington and broadcasts from Great Bend, Kansas on 100.7 FM, playing a country format.

[27] Fox affiliate KOCW, a satellite of KSAS-TV in Wichita, is licensed to Hoisington and broadcasts on digital channel 14.

[29] The ABC comedy Sports Night referenced Hoisington on October 13, 1998, in the episode "Intellectual Property."

Associate Producer Jeremy Goodwin, challenged to find material to enable sports anchors Dan Rydell and Casey McCall to stretch a segment about a sporting event, notes that the "attendance at tonight's game, 11,323, is exactly the same as the population of Hoisington, Kansas."

Producer Dana Whitaker then relays to Dan and Casey that they have two options for stretching the segment: report this odd "fact" about Hoisington, or "talk slower."