Kiowa County, Oklahoma

Wichita Mountains and Kiowa Nation southwest Oklahoma - from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge on Kiowa County's eastern border (the refuge's ancient granite peaks rising from the southern plains provide one of Oklahoma's most dramatic landscapes, sheltering bison, longhorn cattle, and elk in a protected wilderness that feels worlds away from the surrounding wheat fields) to Kiowa County's deep Indigenous heritage (the county takes its name from the Kiowa people, one of the Great Plains' most powerful nomadic nations whose territory once encompassed much of southwest Oklahoma, and whose cultural legacy shapes the region's identity alongside the county's wheat and cotton farming economy).