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Oklahoma County
Washita County, Oklahoma
The Battle of the Washita and Oklahoma's wind energy frontier - from the Battle of the Washita site (November 27, 1868 - George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's peaceful Cheyenne village on the Washita River at dawn, killing Black Kettle and his wife along with over 100 other Cheyenne in one of the most controversial military actions of the Indian Wars - a National Historic Site near Cheyenne in Roger Mills County, but the Washita River flows through Washita County) to the county's significant wind energy development (Washita County's consistent southwest winds have made it one of Oklahoma's most productive wind energy counties, with dozens of turbines visible across the rolling red hills).
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Office: Washita County Emergency Management – 111 E. Main Street, Cordell, OK 73632 | (580) 832-4114 | Email: [email protected]
Related: Washita County Sheriff’s Office – (580) 832-2370; county jail (580) 832-2413.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-183 and SH-152 serve New Cordell (commonly called Cordell), the county seat, in western Oklahoma
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: New Cordell City Hall – contact via cityofcordell.com
Notes: Washita County Clerk – 111 East Main St., 2nd Floor, Cordell, OK 73632, (580) 832-3548 / (580) 832-2284, handles unincorporated-area records and courthouse-related documents.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Washita County Veterans Service Officer – Washita County Courthouse, Cordell, OK
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Cordell Public Library – 208 S. College, Cordell, OK 73632 | (580) 832-3530 | Part of the Western Plains Library System
Services: Serves Washita County; the original library, the 1911 Cordell Carnegie Public Library, was genuinely Washita County’s only library until the 1960s and also served as a community center used regularly by local schools; when a new library building opened in New Cordell in 1982, the historic Carnegie building became the Washita County Historical Museum, which today displays a pioneer rock house (1893), a farm barn, an 1890 chuck wagon, and other county artifacts.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Washita County’s seat, New Cordell, is home to a genuinely dramatic courthouse story – after H.D. Young’s general store and post office moved from “Old Cordell” to the present townsite in 1897 (drawn by better water quality), local boosters A.J. Johnson and J.C. Harrel maneuvered to move the county seat there from Cloud Chief in 1900; the move was challenged as illegal since only the territorial legislature could authorize it, and in 1904 the Oklahoma Territorial Supreme Court actually ordered the seat returned to Cloud Chief – undeterred, Cordell attorney Sam Massengale traveled to Washington and successfully lobbied Congress to pass a bill making Cordell the official county seat in 1906; after the original courthouse burned down in a 1909 fire (most records were saved), the present Washita County Courthouse was completed in 1910-11 by the same architectural firm that designed the Oklahoma State Capitol, prompting Governor George Nigh to later call it the “godfather of all courthouses in the state of Oklahoma”; the historic courthouse square, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has genuinely drawn Hollywood film crews for location shooting, and the district also includes the Washita Theatre, a 1945 Art Deco movie house still in operation with modern digital and 3D projection; New Cordell hosts an annual Pumpkin Festival each October and was recognized as a Great American Main Street Award Community in 1999
Notes: Washita County’s genuine courthouse saga – including a Supreme Court reversal, a congressional lobbying campaign, and an architect shared with the Oklahoma State Capitol – makes it one of the more dramatically documented county-seat histories found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Washita County GIS Data Warehouse – accessible via official county sources
Parcel Search: Washita County Assessor – Cordell, OK
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Washita County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: City of New Cordell Animal Services – contact via cityofcordell.com/animal-services
Services: City-run animal control and adoption assistance dedicated to public and animal health/safety.
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. Cordell Reservoir offers local recreation.
NOTES
Washita County’s courthouse square carries a genuinely dramatic history, including a Supreme Court reversal and a congressional lobbying trip that finally settled New Cordell as the county seat. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and courthouse pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Washita County
Washita County is western Oklahoma’s wind energy and Washita River heritage county – a Cheyenne-Arapaho homeland where the river that witnessed one of the Indian Wars’ most controversial battles now generates clean energy from Oklahoma’s powerful southwest winds.
Cordell (the county seat, population ~2,800) serves the county’s governmental and agricultural needs in the rolling red hill country of western Oklahoma. The county’s wind energy development has brought turbine maintenance employment and lease income to the agricultural community.
Burns Flat (population ~1,000) hosts the Washita Regional Airport – formerly Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base, now a public-use airport with a long runway.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Washita County Assessor at 101 Main Street, Suite 3, Cordell, OK 73632, phone 580-832-2726. OK homestead assessed at 11% of fair cash value. Appeal to Board of Equalization.
Courts & Legal
Washita County District Court at 101 Main Street, Cordell, OK 73632, phone 580-832-3836, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-3548
COURT CLERK
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-3821
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Washita County District Court, Cordell (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Washita 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
Washita County District Court 111 East Main Street, Cordell, OK 73632 (580) 832-3836 Washita County is in western Oklahoma, seated in Cordell.
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 Washita 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
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-3554
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTION BOARD
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-2103
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-3355
Department of Human Services
116 East Main St, Cordell, OK 73632
(580) 832-3326
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Washita County Health Department – Cordell, OK
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Cordell
Population: 10,500
Established: 1907
Tier: 3
Public Records
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