Editing Watonga, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Watonga is located on former [[Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation]] lands that were allotted to individual tribal members, and the excess opened to white settlers in the [[Land Run of 1892]]. Watonga is named after [[Arapaho people|Arapaho]] Chief Watonga, whose name means "Black Coyote".<ref name=crawford>Crawford, Terri. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WA043 "Watonga,"] ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2015.</ref>

The town began as a tent city on April 19, 1892. A post office opened in Watonga during the same year. {{efn|The first postmaster was [[Thompson Benton Ferguson]], who served in this position until 1896. He then became the editor-publisher of the ''Watonga Republican'' newspaper until 1901, when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him the sixth governor of [[Oklahoma Territory]] from 1906 through 1907. Ferguson then returned to his home in Watonga, where he lived for the rest of his life.}} However, the first railroad line through Watonga was not built until 1901–02, when the Enid and Anadarko Railway (later the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway]]) constructed a {{convert|60|mile|km}} rail line from [[Guthrie, Oklahoma|Guthrie]].<ref name=crawford/>