Lehigh is a city in Marion County, Kansas, United States.

For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans.

In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre.

In 1855, Marion County was established within the Kansas Territory, which included the land for modern day Lehigh.

One of the rumors is the city being slightly higher altitude which was "lay high" above the prairie, the other rumor that it was named by representatives of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania who came to Kansas and considered settling the area in the 1870s or 1880s.

[7] As early as 1875, city leaders of Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from Florence.

[9] The line was leased and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

[10] In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to Central Kansas Railway.

In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion through Lehigh to McPherson was abandoned and removed.

The original branch line connected Florence, Marion, Canada, Hillsboro, Lehigh, Canton, Galva, McPherson, Conway, Windom, Little River, Mitchell, Lyons, Chase, Ellinwood.

The former 1879 Lehigh rail depot was moved to Walton, Kansas and sits next to Highway 50.

At one time it boasted a bank, several mercantile businesses, and a German weekly Mennonite newspaper, Das Echo, started in 1897.

[15] The National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and was routed through Lehigh, Hillsboro, Marion, Lost Springs.

Lehigh is in the scenic Flint Hills and Great Plains of the state of Kansas.

[1] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.30 square miles (0.78 km2), all of it land.

The North and South Cottonwood River start a few miles northwest of Lehigh.

The 2020 United States census counted 161 people, 64 households, and 43 families in Lehigh.