The first county seat of Haskell county was Santa Fe, which won over the town of Ivanhoe when the county was being organized. Haskell County was named for Dudley C. Haskell, a U. S. Congressman from Kansas. The lack of any railroads hampered the growth of the county, and freight and produce had to be hauled by wagon to Garden City, the nearest point on a railroad. Finally, in 1912 the AT&SF built a line from Dodge City to Elkhart, but the new line missed the town of Santa Fe by seven miles to the south.

The towns of Sublette and Satanta were soon thriving along the new line and an election was held in 1913 to select a new county seat. This was the first county election in which all Kansas women were eligible to vote. The county seat was moved to Sublette in 1920 after another hotly contested election.