Coldwater, Kansas
city in Kansas, United States of America
Coldwater is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 687.
History
In 1884 G.W. Vickers conceived the idea of laying out a town in the northern part of Comanche County, in company with Timothy Shields, J. P. Grove, Samuel Sisson, C. M. Cade and C. D. Bickford, all from Harper County. They preempted a section of land, had it platted off as a town site and named it after the city of Coldwater, Michigan. Early the following year the county had the required number of inhabitants, who petitioned the governor for its organization, and on February 27, 1885, it was organized with Owen Connaughton, George M. Morris and David T. Mclntire, commissioners and R. A. Grossman, clerk. Coldwater was designated as the county seat.
The first post office in Coldwater was established on October 17, 1884.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.98 square miles (7.72 km2), of which 2.64 square miles (6.84 km2) is land and 0.34 square miles (0.88 km2) is water.
Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Coldwater has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Coldwater, Kansas” is city in Kansas, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Coldwater, Kansas and city, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “city in Kansas, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1004397. Authority coordinates are 37.269, -99.326. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1884 and 1885.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Coldwater, Kansas”, its source revision and the description used here.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Coldwater, Kansas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.