Franklin began as a mining community in the early 1900s. It is located just off Highway 69 Bypass which is a major corridor between Kansas City and Pittsburg, Ks./Joplin, Mo. Franklin offers residents, visitors and businesses a clean, friendly, small town environment with a moderate climate. It is a short drive to a major state university and shopping centers.
Crawford County Kansas is known for its coal mining heritage and the settlement of many different ethnic groups who came to the United States in search of work in the coal fields.
Most Kansas coal mining took place in the southeast counties of Cherokee, Crawford and Bourbon, where hundreds of underground shafts and above-ground strip mines were dug. Around those mines, communities and camps were built for workers and their families. Mining companies set up camps for workers near the mines. They built houses, sometimes little more than shacks, for their families.
