According to a booklet "A History of Hodgeman County put out at the Kansas Centennial in 1961: The town of Marena, in Marena Township, was one of the contestants for the county seat in Hodgemen County in 1879. It was located at the north edge of the present site of Hanston, south of Highway 156. According to the Handbook for Hodgeman County of 1887 Marena consisted of a store, blacksmith shop, village school and a group of cottages, while Hanston embraced a store, a lumber yard and a few houses. There was intense rivalry between the two towns and their promoters. Marena was later absorbed into Hanston.