Yocemento, Kansas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yocemento, Kansas
Unincorporated community
Yocemento and the bluffs that gave rise to its brief industry Alexander Gardner's 1867 photograph of the same bluffs over the future Yocemento townsite
KDOT map of Ellis County (legend)
Yocemento, Kansas Location in Kansas Show map of Kansas Yocemento, Kansas Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Kansas
County	Ellis
Township	Big Creek
Founded	1906
Platted	1907
Elevation	2,051 ft (625 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	67601
Area code	785
FIPS code	20-80725
GNIS ID	484723

Yocemento is an unincorporated community in Big Creek Township, Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The settlement lies across the banks of Big Creek against the base of bluffs capped by massive limestone blocks, in which lies the 20th-century origin of the community.

The original settler name for the location was Hog Back, with a railway station first established there with that name in 1881. This station was later moved to Hog Back, Kansas. Hog Back was the local name for the high limestone and chalk ridge that runs from just west of old Fort Hays to Ellis. These bluffs are the local outcrop of the Fort Hays Limestone. Founded in 1906 by business partners Erasmus Haworth, the first state geologist of Kansas, and I. M. Yost, leading businessman and miller of Hays, Yocemento is one of the several communities around the outskirts of the High Plains that were founded to use Fort Hays Limestone to manufacture Portland cement.

History

The U.S. Portland Cement Company constructed a cement mill at the site of Yocemento in 1906. In 1907, the company platted a town for the mill's workers, naming it Yocemento, a portmanteau of Yost, the company president's last name, and cement. A post office opened that same year. By mid-1908, the mill was operational, and the town included a general store, hotel, and restaurant. Many local residents employed at the mill were ethnic Hungarians who had constructed a Catholic church at the site in 1906.

In 1917, the cement company went bankrupt and sold the mill to a Denver-based competitor. The post office closed as well. The mill was dismantled, and residents began to leave the community. In 1931, the church building was moved to Buckeye, Kansas for use as a community hall. Today, what remains of the mill has been remodeled into family homes.

Geography

Yocemento is located at 38°54′26″N 99°25′26″W / 38.90722°N 99.42389°W / 38.90722; -99.42389 (38.9072335, -99.4239958) at an elevation of 2,051 feet (625 m). It is 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Interstate 70 and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) west-northwest of Hays, the county seat.

Yocemento lies on the south side of Big Creek in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains.

Transportation

Rail

The Kansas Pacific (KP) line of the Union Pacific Railroad runs southeast-northwest through Yocemento, with a spur for the grain elevator and bulk supplies.

Highways

Yocemento Avenue approaching the old mill buildings from the south

• Old Hwy 40 (RS 1977) (parallel to and south of the railroad tracks, an old alignment of U.S. Route 40) runs southeast-northwest through Yocemento between the old cement plant and quarry to the south and the grain elevator and remainder of the village to the north. This highway is a direct connection between the downtowns of Hays and Ellis.
• Yocemento Avenue runs generally north-south through the community, connecting to Exit 153 of Interstate 70 a mile to the north.
• Rome Avenue runs east-west through the old townsite, then runs north of the track to Hays.

Images for kids

• 

  1718 Guillaume de L'Isle map showing Padoucas villages on the upper rivers of northwest Kansas (Cansez).

• 

  2016 reenactment of the Robert Benecke photo

• 

  I. M. Yost's plan of the Yocemento townsite near the mill under construction

• 

  frameless

• 

  Kansas City Union Station was built with cement made in Yocemento.

• 

  Blue Hill Shale quarry, below the limestone quarry, used at the mill for the silica component of Portland cement

• 

  Remaining cement mill structures

• 

  Midland Marketing Co-op elevator and bulk fertilizer chemical warehouse

• 

  Parallel highway and railroad track west out of Yocemento; the original track was at the base of the bluff at left, original highway was behind the trees at right.