Comanche County, Kansas

Comanche County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Coldwater
Year Organized: 1885
Square Miles: 788

Court House:

201 S. New York, PO Box 776
County Courthouse
Coldwater, KS 67029-0776

Named: Named from the Indian tribe of that name.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Comanche County, one of the southern tier, is the sixth county east of the Colorado state line. It was created by an act of the state legislature in 1867, which provided for the division into counties of all the unorganized part of the state east of range line 26 west, and was named for the Comanche tribe of Indians. The act provided the following bounds for Comanche county: "Commencing where the east line of range 16 west, intersects the 6th standard parallel, thence south to the 37th degree north latitude, thence west to the east line of range 21, thence north to the 6th standard parallel, thence east to the place of beginning." By political divisions, it is bounded on the north by Kiowa county; east by Barber south by the State of Oklahoma, and west by Clark county. Its area is 795 square miles.

Before the county could be organized it was required by an act of June 4, 1861, that a census be taken and that the county should show a population of "600 inhabitants, excluding Indians not taxed, and who are bona fide residents of the county and the United States."

The county was first organized in 1873, under a general law then in force, and was represented in the Legislature under that organization in 1874, but that organization was held fraudulent and void.

Geography

The general contour of the county is level except where the land breaks into bluffs along some of the larger streams. The valleys and second bottom lands are alluvial deposits and very fertile. The many streams are fringed with narrow belts of timber, chiefly cedar, walnut, elm and cottonwood. Sandstone, mineral paint and gypsum are plentiful, while salt springs are numerous in the southwestern portion. The Cimarron river flows southeast across the southwest corner of the county. Its principal tributaries in the county are Calvary creek, which flows south through the western part. The eastern portion is well drained by Mustang, Nescatonga, Indian and Big Mule creeks, all of which are tributary to the salt fork of the Arkansas river.

Bluff Creek and the Cimarron River join in the southwest part of the county before disappearing into Oklahoma. The Salt Fork of the Arkansas River winds across the southeast corner toward Barber County.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Kiowa County
East: Barber County
Southeast: Woods County, Okla.
Southwest: Harper County, Okla.
West: Clark County

Cities:

- Avilla	township
- Coldwater (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Powell	township
- Protection	city	Incorporated Area
- Wilmore	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Comanche County - KS-Cyclopedia - 1912

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our country!”

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.”

Penn Foster High School

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