This town came into existence by swallowing its neighbors.
Settlers platted Corbitt, two and a half miles north of the town in 1885, and the Enterprise Investment Co. established Colcord seven miles to the west. However, by May 1887, the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad planned to bypass both communities.
The Railroad, along with Enterprise, urged Corbitt and Colcord to move their businesses to the new town of Bucklin, named for a Rock Island civil engineer, James Magee Bucklin. Standing at the crossroads of two divisions of the Railroad, the new town was ideally placed for shipping and receiving goods from the farmers and ranchers in the area.
Businesses from Corbitt and Colcord and other towns were physically moved to Bucklin. Colcord was moved the seven miles overnight. It wasn’t until 1909 Bucklin gained incorporation. By that time it had 696 residents, two banks, two hotels, several retail businesses and the “Bucklin Banner” newspaper which had arrived 1901 as the former “Dodge City Reporter.”
(Read more: Dodge City Daily Globe)