Dighton, the county seat of Lane county, is centrally located on the Great Bend & Scott division of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 96 miles west of Great Bend. The land which forms the town site was entered by W. A. Watson in the spring of 1879 and a postoffice was established the same year, but six years elapsed before the town began to grow. In May, 1885, there were only three houses and seven voters in Dighton, but the prospects of early railroad communication brought an influx of population. On Feb. 18, 1886, R. W. Montgomery issued the initial number of the Dighton Journal, which states that there then were 70 buildings and a population of 350, with about 50 new buildings in process of construction. The expectations of the founders at that time have not been realized, though Dighton is one of the active, energetic towns of western Kansas. It has a national and a state bank, a money order postoffice, a flour mill, a grain elevator, 2 weekly newspapers (the Journal and the Herald), graded public schools, the county high school, a hotel, several well stocked mercantile establishments, Baptist, Christian and Methodist churches, telegraph and express service, a cornet band, and is connected with the surrounding towns by telephone. It is an incorporated city of the third class, and in 1910 reported a population of 370. The population in 1900 was only 194, and the gain during the ten years has been of a permanent and substantial character.