Gray

Formed March 13, 1881 (94^th county)

Gray County (5,654), Cimarron (1,980)

A Neo-Classical reddish/brown brick and masonry courthouse for Gray County was erected in 1927.  An addition was connected in 1987.  This courthouse is on a square at Main, B, Ash, and C streets and replaced an 1888 building.  Routledge and Hertz were the architects.  Tile floors split into two stairways.  United States Highway 50 is three blocks north of the site.  The county was formed on March 13, 1881 from parts of Finney and Ford counties as the 94^th county.  Ingalls was the first county seat followed by Cimarron in 1887.  The county is named for Kansas Board of Agriculture Secretary Alfred Gray.  The county seat is named for the Cimarron branch of the Chisholm Trail. 

Gray County government consists of a sheriff, a clerk, an attorney, a treasurer, a coroner, and an appraiser (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Six District Court Judges serve Gray, Clark, Comanche, Ford, Kiowa, and Meade counties (judicial.) The county is in western Kansas between Dodge City, Kansas and Garden City, Kansas.  The Arkansas River flows through the county.  The county center is 12.9 miles South-Southwest of Cimarron nearer Montezuma.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Finney, Hodgeman, Ford, Meade, and Haskell counties. 

The area of the county is 869 square miles.  It is 39 out of 105 in the state.  It ranks 61 out of 105 in population in the state.  It has a density of 6.5 persons per square mile making it 65 out of 105 in the state.  Gray County has 64.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highways 50/400 pass east to west in the county from Ford County to Finney County.  United States Highway 56 goes east to southwest from Ford County to Haskell County.  The county is an overall rectangle with Cimarron in the northeast quarter of the county.  Cimarron is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 35.0% of the county population.