Sublette: The Mountain Man's Town

Sublette is named for William Sublette, a Kentucky-born fur trapper and mountain man who blazed trails through the southern plains in the eighteen twenties and thirties as a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He was also known as Cut Face.

The town was founded in nineteen twelve when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reached Haskell County, bypassing the existing town of Santa Fe and sealing its fate. Residents migrated to the new rail town, and a fierce county-seat fight followed. It took a special election and a ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court to settle the matter in Sublette's favor. The county fair, first held in Sublette in nineteen sixteen, still runs at its original location today.