The railroad's sudden rerouting and construction west of Junction City was opposed by a Cheyenne military society who attacked the Campbell camp who were establishing a bridge grade across the North Fork of Big Creek at this location (pictured).

[7][8] Commanded by Captain George Armes,[9] the immediate U.S. military response resulted in the Battle of the Saline River, which was followed by two years of open conflict.

[10] In 1873, George Grant arrived in Kansas leading a party of 30 young adults and youth of Scottish and English nobility, including some remittance men sent away by their families to live on stipends.

Founding the first of several organized transatlantic settlements in Ellis County, Grant intended to create a ranching community, some lesser nobles of the party hoping to establish large estates in the frontier.

[11][12] The colony occupied a roughly 10 mile-wide swath land sections from the tracks south to the Smoky Hill River.

With the settlement named Victoria to honor the Queen,[13] the Kansas Pacific Railroad immediately constructed a relatively elaborate stone station-hotel for the colony.

Grant brought British architect Robert William Edis to the colony to design his manor house and to lay out his dream town.

[3][18][17] Today, the platted church grounds are a largely unoccupied cemetery with a monument to Grant's contribution to American Angus breeds.

While most of the English left, certain Scottish families remained, notably the descendants of Grant as well as the Philips, four of whom served as Mayor of Hays.

[27] A traditional religious community, Herzog's Catholic services were first held in the open around an erected cross, then in the home of Alois Dreiling after it was constructed.

A typical two-story, four-room I-frame prairie farmhouse, attendance soon was too much for the flooring to withstand and a wood framed addition was built onto the home to hold church services.

[28][29] The only Catholic in the Victoria Colony, Sir Walter C. Maxwell had high interest in Herzog and completed a stone church for the town in 1877.

During World War II, thousands were stationed at the airfield, most for training in operation of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber aircraft.

[35] In 1949, after the formation of the United States Air Force, that service designated the base "Victoria Auxiliary Field", but never operated the facility.

In 1966, construction of Interstate 70 was completed through Ellis County, bypassing the state highway designation and routing its traffic to the north of the town.

[21] While the Interstate increased traffic through the general corridor, regional centers such as Hays and Salina found greater expansion in commerce than Victoria.

[38] The city sits on the eastern side of the North Fork of Big Creek, part of the Smoky Hill River watershed.

The three industries employing the largest percentages of the working civilian labor force were: educational services, and health care and social assistance (24.1%); agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (10.7%); and Wholesale trade (8.2%).

[47] The Herzogfest is Victoria's annual community festival, held to celebrate the city's ethnic German heritage.