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

In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France but keeping title to about 7,500 square miles.

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.

[6] Osage County is included in the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In only six presidential elections from 1880 to the present day has the county failed to back the Republican Party candidate, most recently in Lyndon B. Johnson's national landslide of 1964.

Osage County was a prohibition, or "dry", county until the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1986 and voters approved the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with a 30% food sales requirement.

The newspaper has a circulation of approximately 4,500, making it the 3rd largest paid weekly publication in the state of Kansas.

[17] † means a community is designated a Census-Designated Place (CDP) by the United States Census Bureau.