Beginning in the 1870s, homesteaders settled near present-day WaKeeney to farm or establish ranches raising cattle, sheep, and pigs, but western Kansas's extreme weather made success difficult, and many abandoned claims before others finally succeeded. Free-range land in the 1880s attracted cattlemen, and ranchers formed groups such as the Forrester and Smoky Hill Cattle Pools to manage cattle jointly. WaKeeney began in 1877 when James Keeney and Albert Warren of Chicago, through Warren, Keeney, & Co., bought land from the Kansas Pacific Railroad halfway between Kansas City and Denver and named the settlement from a contraction of their last names, calling it the "Queen City of the High Plains." By 1878 it was platted with grand ambitions and 80-foot-wide brick streets, and celebrations and advertisements drew settlers rapidly, though crop failures over the next two years caused many to leave. WaKeeney incorporated in 1880, and a new wave of Volga German immigrants replaced many of the original settlers, while other nearby communities formed around shared languages and ethnic churches, including Zion Lutheran Church established by Volga Germans in 1905 and a church they built in 1920 along what is now US-283 nine miles south of WaKeeney; Swedes settled around Ogallah, Czechs near Voda, and Collyer by Grand Army of the Republic veterans and Irish immigrants from Chicago. The city continued to grow through the 1950s before stabilizing as a small farming town. Since the 1950s, WaKeeney has been known as the "Christmas City of the High Plains," with an annual downtown Christmas display featuring handcrafted decorations and a 35-foot tree made of pine greenery, lights, and stars, a tradition that remains central to the town's identity year-round.