Arapaho is a town in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Custer County,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
, United States. The population was 668 at the time of the
2020 census. The town lies long
U.S. Route 183 and is named for the
Arapaho
The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed t ...
Native American tribe.
History
The area containing present Arapaho was surveyed by federally-contracted surveyors in 1891, prior to the Cheyenne-Arapaho land opening on April 19, 1892. A US post office was set up for the proposed community on March 23, 1892.
On April 19, 1892, the expected inrush of settlers did materialize; by sundown some 400 claims had been posted. The first town newspaper was issued 10 days later, titled The Arapahoe Arrow (by the end of the year its name had changed to The Arapahoe Bee).
Several Protestant church groups had been organized during the first few years. By 1894 the county courthouse and a school had been built. A lending library was in operation by May 1904.
The Oklahoma Territorial Legislature approved the incorporation on March 2, 1905 (Council Bill #80). The county courthouse had been lost in an 1896 fire, and was not replaced until 1935, built with
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...
funds. It was enlarged in 1985.
[Wilson, Linda D. ''ARAPAHO'', Oklahoma Historical Society]
/ref>
Geography
Arapaho is located along U.S. Route 183, north of Clinton.
According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of , all land.
Climate
Public education
The public education system of the town is combined with that of nearby Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
. The Arapaho-Butler Public School System operates an elementary school (pre K-6th grade) and a high school (7th-12th grade). Both schools are located in Arapaho, adjacent to each other on north 12th Avenue. The two schools had a combined enrollment of 280 in 2000.[
]
Demographics
As of the 2010 census, there were 796 people living in the town.White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 1.20% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 5.88% Native American, 1.07% Asian, 2.41% from other races, and 2.41% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 5.61% of the population.
There were 265 households, out of which 41.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% were married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.3% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.07.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 29.1% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 28.6% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 10.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $34,271, and the median income for a family was $36,339. Males had a median income of $26,375 versus $20,972 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $14,645. About 13.7% of families and 16.1% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 3.1% of those age 65 or over.
References
External links
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Arapaho
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Towns in Custer County, Oklahoma
Towns in Oklahoma
County seats in Oklahoma