Cheyenne County ranks third in Colorado for winter wheat production. Other significant cash crops are sunflowers, hay, alfalfa and corn for grain. Cattle raising is an important source of revenue, too.

An alliance with energy was formed in the early railroad days, when the Kansas Pacific drilled a water well, but found natural gas instead. The first well lit only the railroad houses. Today, over 416 oil and gas wells bring significant revenues to the area.

Recently, Cheyenne County's vast helium reserves have been targeted, and drilling and production of the rare gas are putting the county on the world resource map. Just west of Cheyenne Wells is the $100 million Ladder Creek Helium plant. Colorado is one of only three states producing helium which is used in high-tech manufacturing and in medical imaging systems where it's used to cool super-conducting magnets.