in
Geography & Places
—
The Kansas Town of 772 People That's Larger Than New York City
Tribune, Kansas, a town with just 772 residents, is the largest city by area in the contiguous U.S. at 778 sq miles. This quirky fact is the result of a 2009 governmental consolidation where the city of Tribune merged with Greeley County, expanding its official borders to the county line.
When you picture the largest city in the United States, your mind probably jumps to the sprawling metropolises of New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. You'd be thinking about population, of course. But what if we measured a city's size by pure land area? In that case, the champion of the contiguous U.S. isn't a bustling hub of millions, but a quiet town on the plains of western Kansas with a population of just 772 people: Tribune.
Believe it or not, the city of Tribune, Kansas, covers a staggering 778 square miles. To put that in perspective, New York City's five boroughs combined occupy only about 303 square miles. So how did this tiny town become a geographic giant, dwarfing the most famous city in the world? The answer lies not in urban sprawl, but in civic pragmatism.
A Landmark Consolidation
Until 2009, Tribune was a small city and the county seat of Greeley County, the least populous county in Kansas. Like many rural communities, it faced the challenge of maintaining two separate government structures—a city government and a county government—for a very small number of people. This meant duplicate administrative roles, separate budgets, and general inefficiency that the dwindling tax base could no longer afford.
Seeing a common-sense solution, the residents voted to merge the two entities. In 2009, the City of Tribune and Greeley County consolidated into a single entity: the Unified Government of Greeley County. As part of this legal maneuver, the official city limits of Tribune were expanded to become coterminous with the county's borders. In an instant, a small town was transformed into a 778-square-mile statistical anomaly.
A City of Farmland and Prairie
This consolidation created a city with one of the lowest population densities imaginable—roughly one person per square mile. While technically a single municipality, the vast majority of Tribune's 'city limits' consist of farmland, open prairie, and the occasional county road. The actual town, where most residents live and work, remains a small cluster of buildings in the center of this massive administrative area.
This unique status has made Tribune a favorite piece of trivia and a fascinating case study in rural governance.
While residents didn't set out to create a geographical curiosity, they created a solution tailored to their community's needs. The focus was on survival and efficiency, not on breaking records. The fact that their home is now a trivia answer is just an amusing byproduct of practical decision-making.
Redefining the American 'City'
Tribune's story forces us to question what we mean by the word 'city'. While it lacks skyscrapers and subways, it holds its title due to a legal definition. It's not the only place like this. In Alaska, which is not part of the contiguous U.S., cities like Sitka and Juneau are even larger, covering thousands of square miles of wilderness. But among the lower 48 states, Tribune, Kansas, stands alone.
It's a testament to the idea that in America, even a quiet town of a few hundred people can, through a simple vote, become bigger than the Big Apple.