Nicodemus was founded in 1877 by African American settlers from Kentucky, Mississippi, and other eastern or northern states, and it became the only surviving all-black town west of the Mississippi River established at the end of Reconstruction. Located on an upland table north of the South Fork Solomon River on the eastern edge of Graham County, it long served as an oasis in the High Plains countryside. The town once had a vital business district along Washington Avenue, but commerce declined after 1888 when the Union Pacific Railroad was routed several miles south; today only a few ventures remain, including Ernestine’s Bar-B-Q, the Nicodemus Livery Company, and the Nicodemus Flour Co-op. The community’s annual Emancipation Celebration, first held on August 1, 1878 and now called Homecoming, honors freedom through emancipation and the new lives the original settlers made in Kansas. Nicodemus’s history includes figures such as Edward P. McCabe, Reverend Hickman and Williana Hickman, Zachary and Jennie Fletcher, descendants who served as Buffalo Soldiers including Nathaniel Moore of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, and several professional athletes who grew up there. Its historic significance is reflected in surviving buildings such as the St. Francis Hotel, the District No. 1 School, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the First Baptist Church, and the Township Hall, and in its recognition as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and a National Historic Site in 1996, now administered by the National Park Service.