JUNCTION CITY

city, seat of Geary county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. It is situated at the confluence of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. Junction City was founded in 1858 and named for the river confluence, and it developed as a trading centre for nearby Fort Riley, a U.S. military post since 1853 and the headquarters of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry. The fort was also the site of the first territorial capitol building (1855) of Kansas and is now maintained as a museum. The city is now the wholesale and shipping centre for a grain and dairy area and has railroad shops, feed mills, and dairies. Limestone is quarried from surrounding bluffs. Milford Dam impounds the Republican River. Inc. 1859. Pop. (1992 est.) 20,980.