Waterloo, Kansas. A Kingman County Ghost Town in pictures

Riggs Arboretum

John Riggs and wife Janie, walk through his grandfather John Riggs' grove.

John Riggs' grandson John Riggs, of Lindsborg, and his wife, Janie, walked through the trails crisscrossing 10 acres of what is known as Riggs Arboretum - proclaimed to be the oldest arboretum west of the Mississippi. The elder Riggs built this when he settled her in the late 1800s.

Bald Cyprus, some of the older trees in the arboretum

Water pump at the baseball diamond, built in the 1950s.

The bases are still out at the diamond

St. Louis School- the Catholic school closed in the 1960s. These women still meet her to quilt.

Women quilt every Wednesday in the upper story of the old Catholic school.

A plat of the town.

The old diamond.

Former public school, now a home.

Cheney Sentinel, March 1, 1901
J.W. Riggs, of Waterloo, Kingman Co., was a business caller Tuesday. The Government has decided to establish an experimental forestry station at Waterloo and Mr. Riggs was appointed superintendent. The object is to determine by practical experimentation what kind of trees are best adapted to southern Kansas. About 80 varieties will be planted this spring and reports made form time to time of their growth.


"John W. Riggs, government forester, has a wonderful collection of trees and plants," reported the Kingman Journal in 1901. “Among them are cedars of Lebanon, Olive of Palestine, sequoia, magnolia, plants from Australia and the lotus form the Nile … He has succeeded in making a number of rare plants grow, some of which had never before been cultivated in this country.”

An early day description of the Waterloo vicinity, according to an April 19, 1888 issue of the Kingman Courier. 

“The town of Waterloo is a beautiful little villa situated on the astern bank of Smoot’s Creek, a rapid stream which runs the year round. The Town is surrounded by some of the most productive farms in the state … There is no part of the state of Kansas which enjoys a better water privilege on a soil as rich and deep as does the vicinity of Waterloo.