The city of Russell was the home of former U.S. Senate Majority leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole for many years.

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 Louisiana Purchase.

K-18, a major east–west state highway in northern Kansas, enters from Osborne County to the west and runs through Paradise before joining up with US 281 through Waldo.

US 281 and K-18 split again at the city limits of Luray, and K-18 continues east through Lucas and into Lincoln County.

The last Democrat to carry the county was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936 is the only other to ever achieve this feat.

USD 407, which previously served all of Russell County except the northwest and southeast corners, retracted its footprint and will only serve the cities of Russell, Gorham and Bunker Hill and areas to the south of Interstate 70 along and adjacent to US 281.

Students in Lucas and Luray in grades 7-12 will attend school in Sylvan Grove.

The city of Russell is considered governmentally independent and is excluded from the census figures for the townships.