US 54 is essentially the Northern border of LaHarpe.

La Harpe was one of the depots of the Fort Scott, Wichita and Western rairoad in Allen county around. It did not start as a town, but just served as a railway stop and rural service center. Initially the town that grew around the depot served the farmers in the area. However when the Lanyon Smelting Company built a zinc smelter there; hundreds of jobs were created and the town experienced rapid growth. A large deposit of natural gas sitting beneath the town led to the construction of a second smelter by the Cockerell Company and a zinc rolling mill followed producing many tons of sheet zinc every day. An electric railroad was even built to ferry workers back and forth from Iola each day. When the the supply of gas and the world demand for zinc began to fall, jobs disappeared, the population decreased and La Harpe returned to its original status as a rural service center. The good news is that it is now a quiet, inexpensive place to live for those who are retired or have work elsewhere.