Colby

History

In 1882, a post office was established near the center of Thomas County. Area homesteaders lived under harsh conditions in sod houses, creating demand for a town to provide lumber and other provisions to incoming settlers. J.R. Colby, a local land assessor and preacher, obtained a patent to establish the town in April 1884, and land was acquired for the town site three miles north of the post office in March 1885. The following month, the Kansas Secretary of State issued the Town Charter. Kansas Gov. John Martin named Colby the county seat in 1885, and the city was incorporated in 1886. The Union Pacific Railroad reached the city in 1887, and the Rock Island Railroad followed the next year. In 1941 the St. Thomas Hospital was built as part of the Works Progress Administration plan to build hospitals. This was one of 130 new hospitals to be built with these funds, it was one of two built in Kansas alone. Within the last couple of years, it was renovated to apartments under the name St. Thomas Historic Residences. Interstate 70 reached Colby in 1965, stimulating the growth of a local hospitality industry.

Geography

Colby lies on the south side of Prairie Dog Creek, a tributary of the Republican River, in the High Plains region of the Great Plains. A small tributary of the creek flows northeast through the town. Located at the interchange of Interstate 70 and K-25 in northwestern Kansas, Colby is east-southeast of Denver, northwest of Wichita, and west of Kansas City. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Colby has a transitional climate between a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa) and a semiarid climate (Köppen BSk) with hot summers and cold, dry winters. The hottest temperature recorded in Colby was on July 25, 1940, and 28 June 2012, while the coldest temperature recorded was on December 22, 1989. }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  420
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  382
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  341
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  300
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  262
• Common Grackle

  Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  225
• Western Kingbird

  Tyrannus verticalis Say, 1823 · Aves
  201
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  173

Largest nearby schools

• Colby Elem
  Elementary · Colby · 409 students · 17:1 ratio
• Colby Senior High
  High · Colby · 284 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Colby Middle School
  Middle · Colby · 271 students · 15.9:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2026-03-28
  2 km NW of Weskan, Kansas
• M 2.7 — 2025-07-05
  17 km NNE of Collyer, Kansas
• M 2.8 — 2002-04-14
  12 km SSW of Lebanon, Nebraska
• M 3.3 — 2001-11-13
  Kansas