[3] The particular medicine lodge, mystery house or sacred tabernacle from which the Medicine Lodge River received its name was in reality an arbor-like shelter of tree trunks and leafy branches which was erected by the Kiowa people for the celebration of their annual sun dance in the summer of 1866.

In their own language, the Kiowa people called this stream A-ya-dalda P’a, meaning "Timber-hill River.

"[4] The Kiowa had considered the site sacred due to the high content of Epsom salts in the river.

The site of the Peace Council camp was about three miles above that of the future town and on the same side of the river.

[4] A Peace Treaty Pageant, first presented in 1927 in an outdoor amphitheater on a quarter section of Kansas prairie, commemorates this significant event in Western history.

[7] The community grew rapidly with a hotel, stores, and a post office established within a year.

[7] In 1874, in response to Native raids in the region, residents and the state militia constructed a stockade.

A group of Osage killed three settlers within a few miles of the compound, but no direct attack on the fortifications occurred.

[7] Temperance activist Carrie Nation launched her crusade against the sale of alcohol while living in Medicine Lodge in 1900.

[11] Medicine Lodge is located in south-central Kansas in the Red Hills region of the Great Plains.

[12] The city sits immediately north of the confluence of the Medicine Lodge River and Elm Creek.

Elm Creek flows south around the eastern and southern sides of the city.

A tributary of Elm Creek, which flows south through Medicine Lodge, has been dammed immediately north of the city to form a reservoir, Barber County State Lake.

[13] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.21 square miles (3.13 km2), all of it land.

[15] The 2020 United States census counted 1,781 people, 806 households, and 459 families in Medicine Lodge.

Medicine Lodge Airport, which hosts general aviation, is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southeast of the city.