CHANUTE  , a

city of Neosho county, Kansas, U.S.A., i m. from the Neosho river, and about 120 M . S.S.W. of Kansas city . Pop . (1890) 2826; (1900) 4208, of whcm 210 were foreign-born and 171 were negroes; (1910 census) 9272 . Chanute is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways, the former having large repair shops . The city is in the Kansas-Oklahoma oil and gas field, and is surrounded by a fine farming and dairying region, in which special attention is given to the raising of small fruit; oil, gas, cement rock and brick shale are found in the vicinity . Among the city's manufactures are refined oil, Portland cement, vitrified brick and tile, glass, asphalt, ice, cigars, drilling machinery, and flour . The municipality owns and operates the waterworks, a natural gas plant, and an electric lighting plant . Four towns —New Chicago, Tioga, Chicago Junction and Alliance—were started here about the same time (187o) . In 1872 they were consolidated, and the present name was adopted in honour of Octave Chanute (b . 1832), the civil engineer and aeronautist (see FLIGHT AND FLYING), then the engineer of the Lawrence, Leavenworth & Galveston railway (now part of the Atchison system) . Chanute was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1873, and its charter was revised in 1888 .

Natural gas and oil were found here in 1899, and Chanute became one of the leaders of the Kansas

independent refineries in their contest with the Standard OR Company .