Editing Kingfisher County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Limited archaeological surveys may have discovered evidence of pre-contact peoples, including Paleo-Indian and Archaic (6000 BC - 1 AD) groups that used the area for hunting and foraging. The historic [[Osage (tribe)|Osage]], [[Cheyenne people|Cheyenne]], and [[Comanche]] tribes traversed the prairie grasslands of this area.

Before the county's creation, The [[Chisholm Trail|Chisholm Trail's]] many routes crossed the area. A stage road which paralleled the trail had important stops at [[Dover, Oklahoma|Dover Station]], [[Kingfisher, Oklahoma|King Fisher Station]] and Baker Station.

The area was given to the [[Creek Nation]] by the federal government after their forced removal from Georgia. At the end of the [[American Civil War]], the Creeks were forced to cede the land back to the federal government for siding with the Confederacy. It became part of the [[Unassigned Lands]], and the area was opened to non-Indian settlement in the [[Land Run of 1889|land run on April 22, 1889]].<ref name="landrun89">[http://www.okgenweb.org/~land/ Oklahoma Territory's First Land Run] (accessed May 15, 2013)</ref> Several towns, including [[Kingfisher, Oklahoma]] developed soon after the land run.<ref name="landrun89"/>

Originally this area was called County 5, when the Organic Act of May 2, 1890, created Oklahoma Territory.<ref name="EOHC-KFCo">Everett, Dianna. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=KI012 "Kingfisher County,"] ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. Accessed April 4, 2015.</ref> At an August 5, 1890, election, the voters of County 5 overwhelmingly voted for the name "Kingfisher" over "Hennessey" and "Harrison". The origin of the name is unclear. The ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' mentions three different possibilities. The first is that the name memorialized a local rancher, David King Fisher. The second version is that King and Fisher were two different settlers, whose names were combined for the county and town. The third explanation was that the name was for a rancher named John Fisher and for whom Uncle Johns Creek was named.<ref name="EOHC-KFCo"/>

In November 2022, the county gained national attention when four Chinese nationals were murdered, execution-style, at a Chinese-run marijuana farm at the crossroads hamlet of [[Lacey, Oklahoma|Lacey]], near [[Hennessey, Oklahoma|Hennessey]]. Prior to that, the farm had drawn some attention to itself by having armed guards visible at its perimeters, who hasselled anyone stopping nearby, including postal delivery personnel.