Site of First Washita County Court House

Cordell's campaign for the county seat began before the vote. In 1897 A. J. Johnson and J. C. Harrel enticed H. D. Young to move his store and post office from Old Cordell to the new townsite at the county's center, and they arranged the election. While the case dragged on, Cordell built a two-story courthouse, and attorney Sam Massingale, later a congressman, secured a stay and lobbied Congress in Washington. That courthouse burned on a Friday night in August 1909, days before a court term, and Solomon Andrew Layton designed the courthouse completed in 1911.

What the plaque says

Cheyenne Chief, Cloud Chief Site of First Washita County Court House Cloud Chief, originally Tacola, served as the first county seat. Area settled by land run April 19, 1892. August 7, 1900, citizens voted to move county seat to Cordell. U.S. Supreme Court voided the election since U.S. Congress had designated Cloud Chief the county seat. In 1906, Congress officially named Cordell the co. seat. Washita County Court House Cloud Chief, Oklahoma 1898

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kiowa Tribal Museum — 17 mi
  The Kiowa Tribe's own museum at its Carnegie complex, where ten murals by Kiowa artists carry the people's story from before memory to the present day.
• Oklahoma Route 66 Museum — 19 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's museum of the road in Clinton, decade by decade from the 1926 designation through the Dust Bowl and the war to the 1950s diner.
• Stafford Air & Space Museum — 22 mi
  Weatherford's museum for its astronaut son, Thomas P. Stafford, grown from an airport display case into 75,000 square feet of flight beside I-40 and old Route 66.

More markers nearby

• Tacola/Cloud Chief School — steps away
• Cordell Academy — 8.6 mi
• Millie Durgan, White Captive — 13 mi
• Red Bluff Community Church and School — 14 mi