Arapaho, OK

Arapaho is the Custer County seat on U.S. 183, about five miles north of Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. The town’s name honors the Arapaho people; the word is often translated as “blue sky men” or “blue cloud men.” Its location makes it a road town, with Route 183 carrying traffic between Clinton and the communities across the county. The prairie around Arapaho is broad and dry, while the courthouse and town services give the settlement a civic center.

Modern Arapaho came into being during the April 19, 1892 opening of the Cheyenne-Arapaho lands. Surveyors laid out the town in 1891, and a post office opened March 23, 1892, before the land run. Four hundred participants staked town lots on opening day, creating a tent city; ten days later, a newspaper called the Arapahoe Arrow was printed in a tent. That first burst of settlement left the town with a civic role from the beginning. Today, county government, churches, schools, and highway businesses continue that first-day role as a gathering place for western Oklahoma.