Cottonwood Falls Map
Cottonwood Falls is the largest city and county seat of Chase County, Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 903.
The first settlement in the area of Cottonwood Falls was in 1854, when an Indian trader named Seth Hayes founded a cattle ranch on the Cottonwood River close to the mouth of Diamond Spring Creek. The area around the town was organized as Chase County in 1859. In 1873 the city's French Renaissance style Chase County courthouse was built; at roughly the same time, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reached Cottonwood Falls. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries the area around the city was mainly divided into farms and cattle ranches.
In 1931, Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 599 crashed ten miles south of Cottonwood Falls near the community of Bazaar, killing all eight on board, including Notre Dame University football coach Knute Rockne. A monument to the crash is located on private property.
Nearby cities include Strong City, Matfield Green, Americus, Emporia, Wilsey.