Panhandle, the county seat of Carson County, is on U.S. Highway 60 in the south central part of the county. It derives its name from its location in the Panhandle and was initially named Carson City (for the county) and then later, Panhandle City.
The community obtained a post office in 1887 and was platted in January 1888 as the terminus of the Southern Kansas (Panhandle and Santa Fe) Railway, on a site almost surrounded by several large cattle ranches. Over the next few months Panhandle acquired a school, a mercantile store, a bank, a wagonyard, and three saloons.
In July 1887 Henry Harold Brookes began the Panhandle Herald. The Panhandle Herald, established in a tent at Panhandle, Texas, is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Panhandle.
Many early settlers made extra money hauling bones of slaughtered buffalo to the railroad to be shipped east to fertilizer plants. When Carson County was organized in 1888, Panhandle became the county seat, and a wooden frame courthouse was completed there. The John Callaghan hotel hosted such distinguished guests as Buffalo Bill Cody.
By 1900 Panhandle had a population of 300. In 1909 the town voted to incorporate with a mayor-council government. By then it had several grain elevators, three churches, two banks, telephone service, and a population of 600. The oil boom of the 1920s brought its population level to 2,035 by 1930, and Panhandle became the center of a natural gas field.
A new county courthouse was completed in 1950. In the 1980s Panhandle continued to thrive as a regional marketing and shipping center for wheat, cattle, and petroleum products. Its population increased from 1,958 in 1960 to 2,226 in 1980.
Panhandle has eight churches, and a modern progressive school system. The Carson County Square House Museum, in Pioneer Park on State Highway 207, is considered one of the nation's finest small museums. Centered around the 1887 Square House, a small wooden frame residence with a rooftop captain's walk, the museum complex also features pioneer implements, a Santa Fe caboose, a half-dugout, and a memorial exhibition dedicated to man's quest for freedom. The Square House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2000 the population was 2,589.
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