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Office: Comanche County Emergency Management – 207 S. Washington, Coldwater, KS 67029 | Mailing: PO Box 60 | (620) 518-1217 | Email: [email protected]; Director Britt Lenertz.
Sheriff: Comanche County Sheriff’s Office – 408 North Central Avenue, Coldwater, KS 67029 | Mailing: PO Box 16 | (620) 582-2511 | Fax (620) 582-2261; Sheriff Jacob Bruckner.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911. Serves a large, sparsely populated 790-square-mile county of roughly 1,689 residents.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-160 and US-183 intersect at Coldwater, the county seat, in south-central Kansas near the Oklahoma border.
Notes: Comanche County was established February 26, 1867, named for the Comanche tribe. First settled by cattlemen in 1873, the county’s open range was dominated for over a decade by the “Comanche Pool” – fifteen cattlemen who pooled their herds into roughly 80,000 head across some two million acres, the largest cattle operation in Kansas history, before homesteaders arrived in 1884 and fenced-in farming ended the open-range era.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Comanche County Courthouse – 201 S. New York, Coldwater, KS.
Notes: Comanche County lies within the Gypsum Hills (also called the Red Hills), a genuinely striking Kansas landscape of rust-red buttes, mesas, and canyons capped with white gypsum – rare terrain for the Great Plains, formed roughly 250-300 million years ago during the Permian Period. The Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway, a 42-mile stretch of US-160 running from Medicine Lodge (Barber County) to Coldwater, is one of Kansas’s designated scenic drives. The Comanche County Historical Museum in Coldwater preserves artifacts from the county’s cattle-pool era and pioneer history.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Comanche County Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via comanchecoks.org.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Coldwater Public Library – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway, Lake Coldwater, and the Comanche County Historical Museum are the county’s premier natural and heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine geological drama of the Gypsum Hills, alongside the county’s cattle-pool ranching history, are distinctive facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Comanche County Appraiser’s Office – confirm current contact via comanchecoks.org.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Comanche County Sheriff’s Office handles animal control/cruelty reports directly, (620) 582-2511. The Comanche County Pet Resource Center (a newer initiative supporting local shelters with low-cost veterinary care and foster programs) is also active in the community; confirm current status via comanchecountypetresourcefoundation.org.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Comanche County Solid Waste – confirm current contact via comanchecoks.org.
NOTES: Comanche County is the third county in the third Kansas Round 3 batch, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine geological drama of the Gypsum Hills, alongside the county’s cattle-pool ranching history, are distinctive facts covered in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Comanche County County
Comanche County is one of Kansas’s least populous and most remote counties – the Red Hills gypsum ranch country and the Cimarron River headwaters near the historic Santa Fe Trail Cimarron Cutoff define a southwest Kansas community where Coldwater serves fewer than 1,800 residents in the dramatic red terrain near Oklahoma.
Coldwater (the county seat, population ~700) is Comanche County’s governmental hub on US 183, a remote southwest Kansas ranching community whose Red Hills setting, Cimarron proximity, and cattle economy anchor its identity.
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Comanche County Appraiser at 201 S. New York Avenue, Coldwater, KS 67029, phone 620-582-2182. KS assessed at 11.5% of appraised value.
Courts & Legal
Comanche County District Court at 201 S. New York Avenue, Coldwater, KS 67029, phone 620-582-2361, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Elections)
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2361
DISTRICT COURT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2182
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2361
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Comanche County District Court (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Comanche County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Comanche County District Court, 16th Judicial District 201 South New York Avenue, P.O. Box 722, Coldwater, KS 67029 (620) 582-2182
Comanche County is in south-central Kansas, seated in Coldwater. The 1927 Comanche County Courthouse (Classical Revival, National Register of Historic Places) replaced an earlier wood-frame courthouse destroyed by fire in 1921.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Kansas has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code, maintaining its own statutory framework under the Kansas Probate Code (K.S.A. Chapter 59). Kansas offers several tracks depending on estate size and complexity:
Small Estate Affidavit – for estates where the total value of probate property, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $75,000 (raised from $40,000 effective July 1, 2023), available under K.S.A. 59-1507b. This transfers personal property only. If the decedent left a will, it must still be filed with the probate court even though it isn’t being formally probated.
Simplified Administration – under the Kansas Simplified Estates Act (K.S.A. 59-3201 et seq.), the most common route for straightforward estates.
Formal Probate – supervised or unsupervised administration through the District Court for larger or more complex estates.
A will must be filed for probate within 6 months of death, or it may not be admitted, forcing the estate into intestate distribution.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File a Petition for Probate of Will and Appointment of Executor (if there’s a will) or a Petition for Administration (if intestate) with the Comanche County District Court.
The court admits the will (if any) and appoints the personal representative.
Notice to creditors is published per court order; creditors have a defined window to file claims.
The personal representative inventories assets, pays valid debts and expenses, and – under unsupervised administration – acts with reduced court check-ins.
Without a surviving spouse or children, Kansas intestate succession law (K.S.A. 59-501 et seq.) determines which blood relatives inherit.
After debts are paid, the personal representative distributes assets and files a final accounting; the court closes the estate upon approval.
What it costs
Court costs may be remitted for small estates under recent statutory changes.
Executor/administrator and attorney fees are generally reasonable-fee based rather than a fixed statutory percentage.
Typical timelines: Small Estate Affidavit can proceed relatively quickly; formal probate commonly takes several months to over a year.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2143
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Elections)
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2361
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
201 S. New York Ave., Coldwater, KS 67029
(620) 582-2361
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Comanche County Health Department – confirm current contact via comanchecoks.org.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Coldwater
Population: 1,700
Area: 789 sq mi
Established: 1885
Public Records
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