Early history

For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. The name is non-native, but is derived from the now-extinct Native Erie language, spoken near the Great Lakes. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

19th century

In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France, but keeping title to about 7,500 square miles. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre.

In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. Chautauqua County was created by an act of the Kansas legislature on June 1, 1875, by the division of Howard County into Elk County (the northern half) and Chautauqua County (the southern half). At the time of its creation, the county's population was about 7,400.^{[citation needed]}

Adjacent counties

• Elk County (north)
• Montgomery County (east)
• Washington County, Oklahoma (southeast)
• Osage County, Oklahoma (south)
• Cowley County (west)

Major highways

Sources: National Atlas,^[5] U.S. Census Bureau^[6]

• U.S. Route 166
• Kansas Highway 99

Presidential elections

Chautauqua is an overwhelmingly Republican county. The only Republican to ever lose the county has been Herbert Hoover during his landslide 1932 election defeat when he carried fewer than fifty counties west of the Mississippi. Apart from never-Democratic, historically Yankee Doniphan County, it was the only Kansas county to give incumbent President William Howard Taft a plurality in 1912. The last Democrat to pass thirty percent of the county's vote was Michael Dukakis in 1988, and in 2020 Joe Biden received merely less than thirteen percent.

Laws

Although the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1986 to allow the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with the approval of voters, Chautauqua County remained a prohibition, or "dry", county, until 2008, when a county wide ballot measure was approved to allow individual liquor sales with a 30 percent food requirement.^[14]

Unified school districts

• Cedar Vale USD 285^[15]
• Chautauqua County USD 286^[16]

Cities

Unincorporated communities

Ghost towns

Townships

Chautauqua County is divided into twelve townships. None of the cities within the county are considered governmentally independent, and all figures for the townships include those of the cities. In the following table, the population center is the largest city (or cities) included in that township's population total, if it is of a significant size.