Canton became a city in 1880 thanks to the coming of the Santa Fe railway. In the 1920s the area experienced an economic boom when 'black gold' was discovered and oil derricks sprang up across the prairie. Today working and abandoned pump jacks dot the landscape, and oil-field equipment lies along U.S. 56 just west of town and at the north end of Main—all reminders of Canton's connection to the industry. One of the last steel derricks marks the entrance to the McPherson County Fairgrounds (from Railroad, ½ mile north on Main).