Comanche

Formed July 8, 1901 (22^nd county)

Comanche County (121,124), Lawton (96,867)

Jim Bignell and John Fischer designed the Art Deco features of the 1974 concrete courthouse.  It is located at Southwest 5^th Street and Southwest C Avenue on what can be described as a square.  The location is three blocks west of United States Highway Business 281.  The original courthouse for the county was built in 1902 and another one was built in 1939.  Lawton has always been the county seat.  A bison statue sits in front of the building.  The county was formed on July 8, 1901 from Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Native American territories as the 22^nd county.  The Comanche Native Americans provided the county its name, which is Spanish for “broad trail.”  Major General Henry W. Lawton is the namesake for the county seat. 

Comanche County government consists of a treasurer, a sheriff, an assessor, and a clerk (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Twelve District Court Judges serve Comanche, Cotton, Jefferson and Stephens counties and a court clerk serves Comanche County (judicial.)  The county is situated in southwestern Oklahoma, southwest of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and north of Wichita Falls, Texas.  The county center is 5.2 miles North of Lawton in Fort Sill.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Caddo, Grady, Stephens, Cotton, Tillman, and Kiowa counties. 

The area of the county is 1069 square miles.  It is 15 out of 77 in the state.  It ranks 5 out of 77 in population in the state.  It has a density of 113.3 persons per square mile making it 9 out of 77 in the state.  Comanche County has 83.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 44 enters from Caddo County on the north and exits into Cotton County on the south.  United States Highway 62 comes in from the north, Caddo County, turns west at Lawton, and goes into Kiowa County.  United States Highway 277 parallels Interstate Highway 44 from Caddo County to Cotton County.  United States Highway 281 enters joined with United States Highway 62 from Caddo County, splits at Lawton, and continues south joined with United States Highway 277 into Cotton County.  The county has many turns on its eastern and southern border but is overly a flat rectangle.  Lawton is slightly south and east of center.  Lawton is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 74.6% of the county population.  The county is pronounced CO-MAN-CHEE.  This county is in the Lawton Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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