History:
Established in 1884, Protection is located in Comanche County, in southwestern Kansas. It is on the edge of the High Plains--rolling hills covered with native grasses, or crops of wheat, alfalfa, sorghum and corn. Nearby are the Red Hills--rugged grass-covered hills cut by canyons of exposed red-orange soil.

Over the years, several theories about the reason for Protection's unusual name have been offered.

Protection sits in what was once called the "Satanta Valley," named for the Kiowa Indian leader who, with his people, hunted buffaloes in the region. Kiowa Creek borders Protection on the east; Bluff Creek flows just west of town. South of Protection is "Collier Flats," a broad valley named after an early settler. The Cimarron River cuts across Collier Flats as it flows into Oklahoma.

Stan Herd, an internationally-known environmental artist who creates field-size art by using tractors, crops and stones, grew up in Protection. Herd's "earthworks" have been featured in magazines and on television. Herd recalled his Comanche County childhood in a mural he painted on Protection's main street. The nearby Stan Herd Gallery is open daily at the Protection Township Library from 12:00pm to 6pm

Nathan Leeper, the 1998 NCAA high jump champion, is from Protection. He cleared 7 feet, 5 inches to win the title, and has since "leaped" in the Goodwill Games. The Kansas State University student hopes to qualify as part of Team USA in the 2000 Olympic Games.

In 1957, Protection was featured in a national advertising campaign to protect people against polio. Everyone in town under the age of 40 (and many others, too) received inoculations of the new Salk polio vaccine. This made Protection the first city or town in the United States to be "100% protected against polio."