Formed March 20, 1873 (88th county)
Seward County (21,962), Liberal (19,832)
The red brick and concrete Modern designs of W. I. Fisher was built in 1957. It is at the intersection of Washington and 4th streets. Tile and brick floors are inside the courthouse. United States Highway 83 Business is one block to the west of the site. The county was organized on March 20, 1873 from Native American Territory as the 88th county. The county had an 1892 courthouse also in Liberal, the only county seat. The county is named for United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. Rancher S. S. Rogers “liberally” shared water with travelers and thus the name for the county seat.
Seward County government consists of a sheriff, a clerk, an attorney, a treasurer, a coroner, and an appraiser (executive). It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.) Eight District Court Judges serve Seward, Grant, Haskell, Morton, Stanton, and Stevens counties (judicial.) The county is in the southwestern part of the state on the border with Oklahoma. The Cimarron River flows through the county. Dodge City, Kansas is northeast and Pueblo, Colorado is northwest of the county. The county center is 13.4 miles Northeast of Liberal. The county is surrounded clockwise by Haskell and Meade counties and Oklahoma and Stevens County.
The area of the county is 640 square miles. It is 78 out of 105 in the state. It ranks 26 out of 105 in population in the state. It has a density of 34.3 persons per square mile making it 19 out of 105 in the state. Seward County has 91.9% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 54 comes in from the east, Meade County, and goes to the south, Oklahoma. United States Highway 56 clips the northwest corner from Haskell County, north, to Stevens County, west. United States Highway 83 crosses north to south through the county from Haskell County to Oklahoma. United States Highway 160 enters from Meade County and joins United States Highway 83 to exit into Haskell County. United States Highway 270 comes in from Oklahoma joined with United States Highway 83 and terminates. The county is a rectangle. Liberal is in the southwest near the border. Liberal is the county seat and the largest city. It is 90.3% of the county population. This county is in the Liberal Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Kismet
Liberal
