Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma

Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma
Pottawatomie County Courthouse in Shawnee
Location in the U.S. state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma's location in the U.S.
Founded	1891
Named for	Potawatomi people
Seat	Shawnee
Largest city	Shawnee
Area
• Total	793 sq mi (2,054 km2)
• Land	788 sq mi (2,041 km2)
• Water	5.7 sq mi (15 km2), 0.7%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	71,875
• Density	88/sq mi (34/km²)
Congressional district	5th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

Pottawatomie County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 69,442. Its county seat is Shawnee.

Pottawatomie County is part of the Shawnee, OK Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Oklahoma City–Shawnee, OK Combined Statistical Area.

Pottawatomie County was carved out of land originally given to the Creek and Seminole after their forced removal from Georgia and Florida. After the Civil War, the Creek and Seminole were forced to cede their lands back to the federal government, and the area of Pottawatomie County was used to resettle the Iowa, Sac and Fox, Absentee Shawnee, Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes.

Non-Indian settlement began on September 22, 1891 when all the tribes except the Kickapoo agreed to land allotment, where communal reservation land was divided and allotted to individual members of the tribes. The remaining land was opened to settlement.

During the land run, Pottawatomie County was organized as County "B" with Tecumseh as the county seat. In 1892, the voters of the county elected to rename County "B" as Pottawatomie County after the Potawatomi Indians.

In 1895, the Kickapoo gave up their land rights and their land was given away to white settlers in the last land run in Oklahoma.

In 1930, Shawnee, now bigger in size than Tecumseh, was approved by the voters to become the new county seat.