Welcome to Photo Friday.  Today’s photo is a view of Halifax, Kansas, now a ghost town in Wabaunsee County. Located six miles south of Alma, Kansas, the town was first called Bismarck, and was renamed Halifax in 1885 by the U.S. Post Office.  The Halifax depot on the ATSF line is visible at the far left of this view by Alma photographer, Gus Meier. After the closing of the Post Office, the town was renamed Hessdale by the ATSF Railway. Hessdale was a major cattle shipping railhead on the ATSF spur line in Wabaunsee County.

In this view, the ATSF water tower is visible in the center, and beyond that one can see the Hess ranch. The ATSF stockyard is visible at the far right.

After the Halifax depot burned, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway built this small depot building next to the Hessdale stockyards, seen in the background. The building, seen here in 1960, sold after the stockyards closed in the early 1970s.