At this time, Fossil Station was renamed Russell. The colony of seventy men, women, and children was looking for warmer winters, a new life, and a better future. These colonists built several structures on the National Registry of Historic Places. They did not arrive by wagon train but by the Kansas Pacific Railroad. They lived in boxcars while homes were being built. The American character of the Pioneer is illuminated in a letter written by Benjamin Pratt, the colony's president creating a colony.…

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"If you have energy and some means and desire to live in an industrious, moral, and temperate community and can contribute something in character and influence toward boiling up such a community, we shall greatly welcome you to our colony. Suppose your purpose is to hang around and grumble at real and imaginary difficulties, favor the introduction of whiskey saloons, gambling dens, and other sources of idleness, vice, and misery. In that case, we do not want you."

 

In 1872 Russell was incorporated and named the provisional county seat after a two-year dispute with neighboring Bunker Hill; it became the permanent county seat in 1874. In 1876, VolgaGermans, mainly from the area around Saratov and Samara in Russia, began settling in and around Russell; the first discovery oil well in Russell County was drilled west of Russell in 1923. An oil boom lasted through the 1930s, attracting settlers from Oklahoma and Texas. Petroleum production became a staple of the local economy. Russell came to national attention in the mid-1990s as the hometown of U. S. Senators Bob Dole and Arlen Specter when both men campaigned for the U.S. presidency. Dole was born and raised in Russell, and it remained his official place of residence throughout his political career.