CHANUTE, a city of Neosho county, Kansas, U.S.A., 12om. S. S.W. of Kansas City, near the Neosho river. It is on Federal highway 73W, and is served by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas and the Santa Fe railways. The population in 1925 (State census) was 9,829; in 1930, 10,277. Chanute is in the mid-continent oil and gas field, and is surrounded by a fine farming and fruit growing country. Shale and clay are found near by. Shale-gas provides a cheap industrial fuel. The city is headquarters of a division of the Santa Fe system. It has smelters, refineries, rail road shops, flour-mills, vitrified brick, tile, cement and glass works. The factory output in 1927 was valued at $3,208,520.
Four towns—New Chicago, Tioga, Chicago Junction and Alli ance—founded here about 1870, were consolidated in 1872, and named after Octave Chanute (b. 1832), civil engineer and aero nautist, who was the engineer of the railway then under construc tion. Natural gas and oil were discovered in 1899.