Editing Marysville, Kansas (section)

==History==
[[File:Pony Express Marysville KS.JPG|thumb|left|Pony Express Station (2010)]]
{{See also|History of Kansas}}

Marysville was laid out in 1855 by Francis J. Marshall, and designated in that same year the county seat. It was incorporated as a city in 1861.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Qi9cXyTWt9EC | title=Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Volume 2 | publisher=Standard Publishing Company | author=Blackmar, Frank Wilson | year=1912 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Qi9cXyTWt9EC/page/n236 246]}}</ref>

Marysville was located on the [[Oregon Trail]] and the route of the [[Pony Express]], the St. Joe Road, the Overland Stage, The Military Road, and the Otoe-Missouria Trail.  British explorer [[Richard Francis Burton]] en route to California in 1860 noted: "Passing by Marysville, in old maps Palmetto City, a country-town which thrives by selling whiskey to ruffians of all descriptions ..."<ref>Richard Burton, (1862) ''The Look of the West 1860'', Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, reprint, n.d., p.36.</ref>  The old Pony Express Station still stands in downtown Marysville.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.skyways.org/towns/Marysville/mcocbusinesses/ponyexpbarn/ponyexpbarn.html | title=Pony Express Original Home Station No. 1 | publisher=Kansas State Library | work=Blue Skyways | accessdate=14 June 2014}}</ref> In ''Beyond the Mississippi'' (1867), [[Albert D. Richardson]], who passed through Marysville in 1860, wrote that the town—which was named after the Border Ruffian Marshall's wife—"had 50 houses and was famed for whisky and shooting affrays."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Albert D.|title=Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean|publisher=American Publishing Co.|year=1867|isbn=|location=Hartford, Conn.|pages=288}}</ref>

Marysville owed much of its prosperity to the [[Union Pacific Railroad]], which became a major employer. But as the city grew along the railroad most of the community was across the tracks from a good part of downtown.  As rail traffic increased, vehicular delays were estimated at 7.5 to 8 hours per day at the five grade crossings, which also affected emergency vehicles. In 2006 the main line was moved out of the center of town to a bypass to the south and west, with grade separations for [[US-36]] and [[US-77]].<ref>[https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/publications/freightfinancing/sect3.htm Financing Freight Improvements, Case Studies: Kansas]. Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transportation.</ref>

Marysville is also known as the "[[Black Squirrel]] City" due to an isolated community of all-black squirrels that make their homes in the town. The squirrels are said to be the result of escapees from a traveling circus.<ref name=skyways>{{cite web | title=Marysville community home page | work=Blue Skyways | url=http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Marysville/ | accessdate=2007-06-10 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627024331/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Marysville/ | archivedate=2007-06-27 }}</ref>