Affiliate disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of these relationships.
Oklahoma County
Custer County, Oklahoma
Weatherford's Route 66 and General Tommy Franks' hometown - from Weatherford's Route 66 heritage (the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton - just west of Weatherford - is one of the finest Route 66 museums in the country, celebrating the Mother Road's passage through western Oklahoma's rolling red hills) to Weatherford's Southwestern Oklahoma State University (enrollment ~5,000, a regional university serving western Oklahoma) and General Tommy Franks (commander of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq who oversaw Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom was born in Wynnewood but raised in Weatherford, where he is celebrated as a hometown hero).
Affiliate disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of these relationships.
What do you need to do?
Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
Office: Custer County Emergency Management – 675 West B Street, Arapaho, OK 73620 | (580) 323-4105 | Email: [email protected] | Hours: Mon–Tue 7 AM–5:30 PM, Wed–Fri 8 AM–4 PM
Services: Countywide alerts sign-up; Local Emergency Planning Committee meets monthly, first Monday.
Related: Custer County Sheriff’s Office – 300 North 7th Ave, Arapaho, OK 73620, (580) 323-1616.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-40 and historic Route 66 serve Weatherford, the county’s largest city, in western Oklahoma; US-183 serves Arapaho, the county seat
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Custer County Courthouse – 675 B Street, Arapaho, OK 73620
Notes: Cities including Weatherford and Clinton issue their own separate in-town building permits.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Custer County Veterans Service Officer – Custer County Courthouse, Arapaho, OK
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Weatherford Public Library – 219 E. Franklin, Weatherford, OK 73096 | (580) 772-3591 | Hours: Sun 1–5 PM, Mon–Thu 9 AM–7 PM, Fri–Sat 9 AM–5 PM
Services: Part of the Western Plains Library System, serving Custer, Dewey, Roger Mills, and Washita counties.
Branch: Clinton Public Library – 721 Frisco, Clinton, OK 73601, (580) 323-2165.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Custer County’s largest city, Weatherford, is genuinely and internationally home to the Stafford Air & Space Museum, a 63,000-square-foot Smithsonian Affiliate institution honoring Weatherford native Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford, one of only 24 people in human history to have traveled to the Moon; born in 1930, Stafford was raised in Weatherford by a mother who genuinely arrived in Oklahoma by covered wagon and lived to see her only child fly into space; selected by NASA in its second astronaut class in 1962, Stafford went on to fly four historic space missions, piloting Gemini 6A in 1965, commanding Gemini 9A in 1966, flying the moon-orbiting Apollo 10 mission in 1969, and commanding the American side of the joint U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 – an achievement that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination; the museum, which began in the 1970s as a simple six-foot display case in the Weatherford airport terminal, has grown through six expansions into a genuinely major aerospace collection, including Stafford’s actual flown Gemini VI spacecraft, his Apollo 10 flight pressure suit, an actual moon rock, a ten-story Titan II rocket, the fixed-base simulator that trained all 135 Space Shuttle crews, and a genuine piece of the original Wright Flyer propeller that Neil Armstrong personally carried to the moon on Apollo 11; the museum, located along Route 66 at I-40 Exit 84, also houses more than 20 historic aircraft including a Russian MiG21R and multiple U.S. fighter jets; Custer County itself, formed in 1891 from former Cheyenne land, is named for General George Armstrong Custer, and the county’s history includes an 1849 gold-rush-era expedition led by Captain Randolph B. Marcy that passed through the area
Notes: The Stafford Air & Space Museum’s genuine, deeply personal connection to a hometown astronaut who traveled to the moon – complete with artifacts flown in actual space missions – makes Custer County one of the most scientifically significant county seats found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Custer County GIS – accessible via custer.okcounties.org
Parcel Search: Custer County Assessor – Arapaho, OK
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Custer County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Weatherford Animal Control (Weatherford Animal Shelter) – 650 S Access Rd, Weatherford, OK 73096 | (580) 772-7791 | Open daily
Services: 21 kennel runs, including two large-dog/litter runs; stray reunification and adoption.
Related: Friends For Life Animal Society – new shelter built 2017 on the south side of Clinton, OK, serving Weatherford, Clinton, and surrounding western Oklahoma communities.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) – deq.ok.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details. Washita National Wildlife Refuge, an 8,075-acre refuge established in 1961 along Foss Lake, lies within the county near Butler.
NOTES
Custer County’s largest city, Weatherford, is genuinely home to the Stafford Air & Space Museum, honoring hometown astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, one of only 24 people to have traveled to the moon. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Custer County
Custer County is western Oklahoma’s Route 66 and university county – a Cheyenne-Arapaho homeland where the Mother Road and regional higher education define the modern community.
Weatherford (population ~12,000) is the county’s largest city and commercial hub – Southwestern Oklahoma State University provides higher education and economic stability in a community whose Route 66 location on I-40 keeps it connected to regional traffic flows.
Clinton (population ~9,000) hosts the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum – one of the finest dedicated Route 66 museums anywhere, with exhibits documenting the highway’s cultural, social, and economic significance through eight decades of American road travel.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Custer County Assessor at 675 B Street, Suite 101, Arapaho, OK 73620, phone 580-323-2420. OK homestead assessed at 11% of fair cash value. Appeal to Board of Equalization.
Courts & Legal
Custer County District Court at 675 B Street, Arapaho, OK 73620, phone 580-323-2292, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
675 West D St, Arapaho, OK 73620
(580) 323-1252
COURT CLERK
675 West D St, Arapaho, OK 73620
(580) 323-1616
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Custer County District Court, Arapaho (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Custer 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
Custer County District Court 603 B Street, Arapaho, OK 73620 (580) 323-3233 Custer County is in western Oklahoma, seated in Arapaho.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Oklahoma has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code, maintaining its own probate statutes under Title 58 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Probate cases are handled by the District Court in each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.
Small Estate Affidavit (58 O.S. § 393) – available when the total value of probate personal property (not counting real estate) is $50,000 or less. At least 10 days must have passed since death. This process skips court entirely: the affidavit is signed, notarized, and presented directly to whoever holds the asset (a bank, for example), along with a certified death certificate. Real estate can never be transferred this way – even a small estate with real property still needs some form of court proceeding.
Summary Administration – available when the total probate estate does not exceed $200,000, or when the decedent has been dead more than 5 years, or lived outside Oklahoma. This is an abbreviated form of probate – still court-supervised, but faster and less expensive than full administration.
Regular (Full) Administration – the standard court-supervised process, required for larger or more complex estates, or wherever real property is involved and the shortcuts above don’t apply. A personal representative (executor or administrator) is formally appointed by the court.
Step 2: filing for administration
A Petition for Probate is filed in the District Court of the county where the decedent resided; if there’s a will, the original is filed with the petition.
The court sets a hearing date and requires notice be given to heirs and interested parties.
The court appoints a personal representative (executor if named in a will, administrator if intestate) and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Creditors are notified; claims against the estate must be presented within the statutory period.
The personal representative inventories assets, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes what remains according to the will or Oklahoma’s intestacy laws.
The estate is closed once a final accounting is filed and approved by the court.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by county – check with Custer County directly for current fees.
Oklahoma has a statutory attorney fee schedule for probate, which provides more predictability than states without one.
No state estate tax, no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
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
675 West D St, Arapaho, OK 73620
(580) 323-1616
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTION BOARD
675 West D St, Arapaho, OK 73620
(580) 323-2585
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
1808 East Rader St, Weatherford, OK 73096
(580) 772-3306
Department of Human Services
675 West D St, Arapaho, OK 73620
(580) 323-1666
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Custer County Health Department – Clinton, OK, (580) 331-1900
Related: Red Rock Behavioral Health Services Crisis Unit – 2250 N Airport Rd, Weatherford, OK 73096, (580) 375-6300, emergency inpatient stabilization for mental health crises.
Editorial independence: CountyOffices maintains strict editorial independence from our affiliate partners. Our content is researched from official government sources. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations or the information we publish.
Editorial Trust
5 official sources cited
Reviewed by CountyOffices Editorial Team
Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Arapaho
Population: 28,000
Established: 1892
Tier: 3
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Custer County residents.
