Bray is situated on State Highway 29, nine miles due east of Marlow in north-central Stephens County. The town lies between Clear Creek Lake and Lake Fuqua. The local post office was designated in November 1908, with the community taking the last name of the first postmaster, Thomas W. Bray. In 1909 Bray supported a general store, a blacksmith, a constable, a physician, and two teachers, as well as four grain and livestock enterprises. Ten years later the town had a grist mill, general store, grocery, and restaurant, in addition to a Union church and public school. The unincorporated community continued through the next five decades with its cotton gin, a small store and post office, all located along the highway, forming a small central business district. In addition to cotton farming, oil and gas activity attracted much attention over the years. In 1977 members of the Bray community incorporated the town to avoid annexation by Marlow or Duncan. Encompassing a total of sixty-six square miles, larger than many major cities, the town had a main street that extended for eight miles. Despite the expansive city limits, the town remained overwhelmingly rural. In the late 1910s Bray had an unofficial population of 55. At the time of its incorporation in the mid-1970s the number stood at 650. Included in the federal census for the first time in 1980, the population had declined to 591. A significant boom occurred in the following decade, as by 1990 the town claimed 925 citizens. This number continued to climb, and in 2000 there were 1,035 persons residing within the city limits. The town has never had a local newspaper. Most residents worked in nearby larger towns.

Central High lies on County Road N2750, one mile north of State Highway 7, and approximately 8.5 miles west of Marlow. Throughout the twentieth century the rural area was known for its ranching and farming. By 1921 regional students had only eighth-grade facilities. This led to four smaller school districts, Wolf Creek, Nellie, Prairie Center, and Pleasant Hill, to consolidate, creating Central High School (union-graded district 34). The name stemmed from the school's location near the center of the large district. In 1923 the first student graduated from the institution. Until the late 1930s the central site consisted of a junior high and high school, while the elementary students attended ward schools in the center of the old districts. In 1952 fire destroyed the original four-room high school. In the 1960s and 1970s an influx of population prevented the school from being annexed into nearby districts. In 1995 the residents of this fifty-three-square-mile area voted to incorporate as a town. Proponents urged incorporation so that Central High could apply for municipal grants and obstruct nearby towns, such as Marlow, Lawton, or Duncan, from annexing its land. In 2000 the population stood at 954, and the town had a volunteer fire department.

Comanche is located in the southwestern part of Stephens County, eight miles south of Duncan on U.S. Highway 81. Crossing the community from east to west is State Highway 53. The town was preceded by the Tucker post office, established April 28, 1887, and located three miles east of present Comanche. In 1892 J. D. Wilson, a Chickasaw, platted the original townsite, which was located on his allotment in Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation. In January 1893 the post office changed names from Tucker to Comanche as many settlers moved from Tucker to the new townsite. With the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway line completed in 1892, Comanche enjoyed a central position for early-day cattlemen in the area. With the opening of the land for general settlement after 1897, large ranches gave way to smaller farming operations. In addition to the usual cotton, wheat, and other grain crops, peanuts, and pecans were also important in the Comanche area. By the 1930s the town had four cotton gins and the Comanche Grain and Elevator Company, which manufactured Preferred Dairy Feed and Preferred Hen Scratch. Oil and gas also aided the community's economic development. The first oil well was completed in 1918. Within twenty years there were two hundred producing oil wells within an eight-mile radius of town. Aiding Comanche's development was the 1920s designation of two federal highways, U.S. 70 and U.S. 81, through the community. While U.S. Highway 81 continues to serve as an important north-south corridor, the east-west U.S. Highway 70 bypassed Comanche in 1938. In 1900 Comanche had 547 residents. By 1910 the population more than doubled to number 1,301. Despite the opening of oil wells in the vicinity, the town only gained 126 citizens over the next decade, bringing the 1920 population to 1,427. Comanche grew to 1,704 by 1930 before dropping to 1,533 in 1940. The population of the town peaked in 1950 at 2,083; however, the 1960 count was lower by just one. In 1970 the number dropped to 1,862 before regaining ground to equal 1,937 in 1980. Since then, the population has again declined, falling to 1,695 in 1990 and 1,556 in 2000. The Comanche Times began publication in 1992 and continues to serve the community. Other newspapers in Comanche included the Comanche News which published briefly from 1906 to 1907 and again from 1968 to 1992. Begun in 1904, the weekly Comanche Reflex ran until 1933.

Duncan, the county seat of Stephens County, is centrally located in the western half of the county. In addition to being traversed by north-south U.S. Highway 81, the community is crossed by east-west State Highway 7, which connects to Lawton on the west and, eventually, to Interstate 35 on the east. Duncan is forty miles south of Chickasha, thirty-two miles southeast of Lawton, eighty-one miles southwest of Oklahoma City, and forty-four miles north of the Oklahoma-Texas State line on U.S. Highway 81. William Duncan established the Duncan post office in April 1884, five years after taking over a trade store located on Cow Creek along the Chisholm Trail, about three miles northeast of the present community. Learning of the impending construction of a rail line through Indian Territory by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway (CRI&P), Duncan and his wife, Sally, a legal member of the Chickasaw Nation, claimed five hundred acres in the path of the railroad. Although restricted by the laws of Indian Territory, which prohibited the exchange of land, the Duncans laid out a townsite and began to offer lots for lease, promising legal title when the federal restrictions were lifted. As predicted, the CRI&P came through the community in 1892, providing a critical transportation link. Five years later the Atoka Agreement of 1897, which provided for the allotment of the Chickasaw and Choctaw lands, lifted the prohibitions concerning the legal exchange of land in Duncan. In 1901 a federal townsite survey added an additional 540 acres to the developing town.  With the advent of 1907 statehood Duncan was named the county seat of newly formed Stephens County. This designation has quietly continued to benefit the community, making it a governmental and political center for the county. The first Stephens County courthouse was constructed in Duncan in the early 1920s, with the present courthouse being erected in the late 1960s. During the first decade of the twentieth century Duncan was thriving, due largely to the surrounding agricultural community. By 1909 the town had nearly 150 commercial establishments, including several cotton gins, a flour mill, two grist mills, and an implement dealer. While agriculture remained an important economic support for the town to the present day, the opening of oil wells in southeastern Stephens County in 1918 ignited explosive development for Duncan. Prudently, the community immediately prohibited the construction of shacks and aggressively policed other boomtown activities to ensure that Duncan grew substantively in an orderly, permanent fashion. In the 1920s a variety of oil-related industries opened in Duncan. Foremost among these was Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company. Founded by Erle P. Halliburton, the company has been at the forefront of oil-field technology since the beginning. By the 1930s Halliburton operated in oil fields worldwide but, true to the present day, has always maintained a facility in Duncan. In the mid-1950s, 1,750 people were employed by Halliburton in Duncan, equaling twenty-five percent of the city's working population. Despite the removal of corporate headquarters of Halliburton Energy Services to Dallas in 1961 and downturns in the 1980s, the company's manufacturing presence continues to be Duncan's economic mainstay to the present time.  An oil town would hardly be self-sufficient without a refinery. Duncan's Rock Island Refinery, established in 1922, employed one hundred people by 1936 and had a daily capacity of 6,500 barrels of crude oil. The Rock Island Refinery was partially shut down in 1949, with the rest being sold in 1953 to a Sun Oil Company predecessor. In the mid-1940s the Associated Refineries, Inc., a group of eight refining companies from Oklahoma and Texas, including Duncan's Rock Island Refinery, constructed a 100-octane aviation gasoline refinery in the vicinity. Financed by Defense Plants Corporation, a subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the plant was intended to supply airplane fuel for military operations during World War II. In 1947 the Sunray Oil Company bought the refinery, and the plant became a Sun subsidiary when DX Sunray and Sun Oil Company merged in 1969. The refinery was purchased by Tosco in 1980 and continued to operate for several years before finally closing in the mid-1980s. Reportedly, Duncan had a population of 500 in 1892 when the CRI&P completed its line. By 1900, the number of residents more than doubled to reach 1,164. Over the next decade, the population again doubled to 3,463 in 1920. With the opening of the oil-related industries, Duncan boomed so that by 1930 there were 8,363 persons residing in the city. The harsh years of the Great Depression slowed Duncan's growth. The community gained under a thousand inhabitants to bring the total to 9,207 in 1940. Related to the ongoing petroleum activities, development in the city again took off, and the population rose to 15,325 in 1950 and to 20,009 by 1960. Dipping slightly in 1970 to 19,718, the city expanded to reach 22,517 in 1980 before declining to 21,732 by 1990. Rebounding to just twelve below the 1980 population, Duncan ended the twentieth century with 22,505 residents. The Duncan Banner has kept the community up-to-date for decades and continues to do so. Other newspapers in the city have included the Duncan American and the Duncan Eagle, which were also published as the Duncan Weekly Eagle and the Duncan Morning Eagle. The Justice ran for a brief period in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the Oklahoma Socialist published for a short time around 1910. Several houses in Duncan have been recognized for their architectural significance in the city. These include the H. C. Chrislip House, the Brittain-Garvin House, the Louis B. Simmons House, and the W. T. Foreman House. Two Depression-era properties, the Duncan National Guard Armory and the Duncan Public Library, also stand out for their historic and architectural importance to the community. The armory now houses the Stephens County Historical Museum. Properties consequential in the historic development of Duncan include the Johnson Hotel and Boarding House and the Patterson Hospital. As a regional cultural nexus, Duncan is also home to the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, which is a museum facility, and to the L. B. and Ola Simmons Community Activities Center, a recreation and convention center. Educational amenities include Red River Technology Center, which is a branch of the state vocational-technical training system, and a satellite campus of Cameron University. Duncan maintains a council-manager form of government under a home-rule charter.

Empire City is located approximately seven miles southwest of Duncan in the upper section of the southwest quarter of Stephens County. The town is about three miles due west of U.S. Highway 81, midway between Duncan and Comanche. Originally an oil-boom town, the community started in the late 1910s as drilling activity in Stephens County mushroomed. The original Empire City post office was established in February 1921 and discontinued in December 1934. A classic boom town, Empire City blossomed with an estimated population of 3,000, many transient oilfield workers, and a high number of saloons and other good-time establishments along its dirt-paved Main Street. In June 1920 the town was extended along almost two miles. Two or three additions were in the works, with lots selling for as high as a thousand dollars and improved primarily with rows of cultivated corn. The only entity that survived for more than a few of decades was the Empire School District, which continues to educate the youth of Stephens County. The sole red-brick building remaining from the boom days of the early twentieth century was a school building, which was slated for demolition in the mid-1990s. Nearly fifty years after the original town flamed into existence, Empire City was revived, principally in response to encroachments from the neighboring communities of Comanche and Duncan. In order to avoid annexation area residents incorporated a forty-acre tract as the town of Empire City circa 1967. Notably, the city limits did not encompass the Empire School, and in 1970, the entire population numbered a total of 23 persons. Ten years later the number of residents dropped to just 13. In the mid-1980s locals revitalized the town again, primarily in order to provide fire protection for the community. At about the same time, the city limits were expanded to include all interested persons, resulting in the second major boom for Empire City. In 1990 the population exploded to 219, representing a 1,585 percent increase in just ten years. Growth continued in the community over the 1990s, so that by 2000 there were 734 people living in Empire City. Despite its tremendous proliferation, the town does not have a newspaper or its own post office.

Loco is in the southeastern quarter of Stephens County, about twenty-six miles southeast of Duncan, the county seat. Situated on State Highway 53, the town is eighteen miles west of U.S. Highway 81. The community originated in the late 1880s with a post office being designated in June 1890. While popular theory often ascribes the naming of the town to the locoweed, local historians attribute the name to the Latin word meaning "being in this place." Dr. Albert G. Cranfill, an early settler in the area, chose the name as the community was a popular meeting site. Loco originally thrived as a farming community. Two years after 1907 statehood and the formation of Stephens County, Loco supported three churches, a bank, four grocery stores, a general store, three doctors, one dentist, one drug store, one blacksmith, and the Merchants' and Planters' Gin and Mill Company. Although agriculture remained an important economic mainstay throughout the town's history, in the late 1910s oil and gas production began to emerge as another major source of local revenue. In the 1920s local merchants advertised Loco as one of the best inland towns in the state. According to their advertisement, Loco was a major cotton and poultry center, as well as being the commercial center for the east Stephens County oil and gas fields. During the 1930s cattle ranches, dairy farms, orchards, and vineyards were also yielding good profits for area farmers. Oil and gas activity in the Loco Field remained vibrant for decades as well. However, by the early 1980s the town was reduced to about six churches, two service stations, a post office, and a cemetery. Even the two school buildings stood vacant, as area students were bused to consolidated schools. According to unofficial reports, Loco had a population of 500 in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In the early 1920s newspaper accounts estimated the town at almost 600 residents, a figure used by the Loco Chamber of Commerce in the 1930s. Incorporated in 1926, the town was first included in the federal census of 1930, at which time the population was tallied at 333. By 1940 the number dropped to 268 and continued to decline, so that in 1950 the town numbered 236. Rebounding to its exact 1940 population in 1960, Loco again lost residents, bringing the 1970 figure below 200 for the first time. Briefly surging, the number shot up to 215 in 1980 before descending to 160 by 1990. The 2000 census counted 150 inhabitants. During all of its years, Loco has had just two newspapers, with both publishing briefly in the first decade of the twentieth century. The Loco Times was first, with the Loco Ledger being the last recorded newspaper.

Marlow is situated due north of Duncan about ten miles and twenty-eight miles south of Chickasha on U.S. Highway 81. Prominently located in the northwestern quarter of Stephens County, the community is also crossed by State Highway 29, which now extends eastward through northern Stephens County and historically connected on the west side with Lawton after a short jog southward along U.S. 81. The famed Chisholm Trail crossed through the area, bringing settlers to the vicinity, including A. B. Smythe, who built a house and store on the present site of Marlow in the late 1880s. The city, however, was named for the Dr. Williamson Marlow family, who also settled in the area in the early or mid-1880s. Along with Dr. Marlow and his wife came six of their children, five of them being boys named Boone, George, Alfred, Charles, and Lewellyn. The Marlow Brothers have long been the most famous of Marlow's residents, although the town came into existence after their exploits. U.S. deputy marshals arrested four of the brothers in August 1888 in Texas for suspected horse thievery, despite there being no proof of any wrongdoing. While the brothers were being transported to trial in January 1889, a mob attacked them. As the lawmen fled, two of the brothers, Alfred and Lewellyn, were killed. The other two, George and Charles, repelled the mob despite being chained to their dead brothers. The brothers were subsequently exonerated and heralded for their actions in defending their lives against lynching. Although the Marlow family had already moved from the area when the incident happened, it is immortalized in town history at Marlow's Red Bud Park, constructed on the original homestead of the Marlow family, as well as in song, poetry, and film.  (The Sons of Katy Elder)  Also of historical interest in Marlow are the Montgomery-Linam House and the Marlow National Guard Armory listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Montgomery-Linam House was deemed architecturally significant to the community, while the armory, constructed in the mid-1930s, has both historic and architectural significance. The Marlow post office was established in March 1891, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway constructed their major east-west line through the town in 1892. The town incorporated in 1898, the first town on the Rock Island line south of Chickasha to do so. Noted for its alfalfa, corn, hogs, watermelons, and other fruit, Marlow blossomed, so that by 1908 there were sixty businesses houses in town. In addition to these, the community supported a cement and plaster mill, three lumberyards, three cotton gins, two grain elevators, two brick plants, and six churches. By this time, residents also enjoyed local and long distance telephone service and electric lights provided by their own electric light and waterworks plant. A further distinction for the town was conferred in 1908 when the town of Marlow became a city of the first class. In the late 1910s cotton and broomcorn joined the list of top agricultural exports from the Marlow area, with all crop production more than quadrupling between 1916 and 1919, and the city was thriving. In 1946 local industries included a meal-flour-feed mill, two cotton gins, a bakery, and a mattress factory, among a host of other commercial enterprises. Slightly diversifying Marlow's economy were the twin drilling activities of oil and gas, which by the 1930s focused on wells northeast of town. However, Marlow remained more a farming community through the decades, with oil and gas drilling a viable but lesser economic force. Currently, beef, wheat, alfalfa, peanuts, and milo are important crops, and the city continues to support a variety of retail establishments and restaurants. Also effecting development in Marlow in more recent decades has been its proximity to Duncan. With many residents working in the larger city, particularly for the gigantic oil-field equipment manufacturer Halliburton Energy Services, Marlow has experienced many of the economic ups and downs of its neighbor. At the turn of the twentieth century there were 1,016 residents in Marlow. Seven years later the town had a population of 1,648, remaining second to only Duncan in Stephens County. In a three-year span the community gained more than 300 people, reaching 1,965 in 1910. Continuing to prosper, the city grew to 2,276 by 1920 before escalating to 3,084 in 1930. Experiencing a slight decline in the 1930s, the population fell to 2,899 in 1940. Rebounding to exceed all previous counts, by 1950 Marlow included 3,399 persons and in 1960 passed the 4,000 mark for the first time. The population dropped to 3,995 in 1970 but within ten years topped 5,000 for the only time in the town's history. Peaking at 5,017, the number tumbled to 4,416 in 1990 before stabilizing at 4,592 by 2000. Marlow has had just two newspapers in its history. The Marlow Magnet was published in the 1890s, and by 1905 the Marlow Review had started publication. The Review continued to serve the community into the twenty-first century.

Velma is situated sixteen miles southeast of Duncan on State Highway 7 and nine miles east of the Stephens/Carter county line. The town is located in east-central Stephens County. Named for a local merchant's daughter, the Velma post office was established on September 25, 1886. The community had begun to develop in the late 1860s as settlers followed the cattle herds along the Chisholm Trail. Originally located in Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, Velma was included in Stephens County, created at 1907 statehood. During its early decades Velma was predominately a farming community with cotton being the principal cash crop. By the 1960s row crops and cattle-hog operations had preempted cotton, but agriculture remained an important local source of revenue. In 1917 the first oil well in the Velma area was drilled, one that continued to produce through the 1960s. Oil production and petroleum-related industries thereafter dominated Velma's economy. With oil activity at a high, Velma flourished in the 1960s and 1970s as the town built a community water system and a nine-hole golf course. The golf course remains an area attraction. Between 1965 and 1969 the community also incorporated and obtained a bank and new telephone exchange. In 1909 Velma had a reported an estimated population of one hundred. Ten years later the town had grown to number approximately 150. The first federal census to include Velma came in 1970, at which time the community included 611 citizens. The town peaked in 1980 with a population of 831.The number of residents then fell to 661 in 1990. Holding steady, the population in 2000 stood at 664 inhabitants. Among the various businesses in the community a local newspaper has never been recorded.

STEPHENS COUNTY

According to a 1981 archaeological survey report published in 1983, Stephens County has forty-eight known archaeological sites. Of these sites thirty-one were found during federally funded surveys. None have been tested or excavated. However, three were identified as important for additional investigation. They include the Central School and Smith sites, both representative of the Plains Village period, and the Funk site, of an uncertain prehistoric period with a preserved camp with habitation features.

Present Oklahoma was situated in the area known as the Louisiana Territory, which was purchased from France in 1803. After the United States acquired this region, American explorers, traders, and military personnel came through the area and wrote accounts of their travels. In 1834 the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition left Fort Gibson and passed through present Stephens County to treat with the Plains Indians. From Fort Arbuckle Capt. Randolph B. Marcy passed through the future county in 1852 when he led an expedition to locate the source of the Red River.

In 1818 the Quapaw ceded to the United States the area between the Canadian and Red rivers. This region became home to the Choctaw and Chickasaw, who were removed from southeastern United States in the 1820s and 1830s. Forts Washita and Arbuckle were established in 1842 and 1850, respectively, to provide protection to the Chickasaw from marauding Plains tribes and unscrupulous whites. Although no significant Civil War battles occurred in the Chickasaw Nation, the ravages of war destroyed property and livestock. Because the Chickasaw and other Five Civilized Tribes supported the Confederacy, they lost their western lands as part of the conditions of the Reconstruction Treaties negotiated in 1866. The area west of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations known as the Leased District was ceded to the United States. Reservations were established in the Leased District for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache in 1867, the Wichita and Caddo in 1868, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1869.

Following the Civil War (1861-64), the Chisholm Trail, which passed through Stephens County, developed as a route for Texas cattlemen to drive their cattle to markets in Kansas. The Old Duncan Store, established circa 1867 by Silas Fitzpatrick, was situated along the Chisholm Trail. Fitzpatrick sold the store to William Duncan, for whom the county seat is named.

At 1907 statehood approximately two-thirds of Stephens County was formed from part of Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, and the western one-third was taken from Comanche County. Duncan was designated as the county seat. The county commissioners originally had offices in rented space until the first courthouse was constructed. The Manhattan Construction Company started construction on the facility in 1921. Designed by Oklahoma City architect Jewell Hicks, the building had a combination of Second Renaissance Revival and Neo-Classical designs. The present courthouse was constructed in 1967.

Stephens County's economy has been based primarily on agriculture and the petroleum industry. The county's soil has been conducive to the production of wheat, cotton, and peanuts. In 1907 agriculture and stock raising were reported as the principal industries and the main crops included corn, cotton, wheat, and oats. By 1930 the county had 366,420 acres in farms. Of the 2,922 farms, 68.8 percent were operated by tenants and the average farm size was 150.5 acres. Livestock numbered 19,434 cattle, 4,555 horses, 4,217 hogs, 3,974 mules, and 522 sheep and goats. By 1963 the numbers reported were 59,000 cattle, 2,200 milk cows, 6,800 hogs, 1,400 sheep, and 55,500 chickens. That year farmers had planted 17,500 acres in wheat, 8,600 in barley, 7,300 in sorghums, 6,400 acres in hay, 6,300 acres in oats, 3,600 acres in cotton, and 1,940 acres in peanuts. At the turn of the twenty-first century Stephens County had 1,093 farms with an average size of 385 acres for a total of 420,805 acres.

In the late 1910s oil and gas drilling activity proliferated in Stephens County. Empire City became an oil-boom town overnight with at estimated population of three thousand. When drilling occurred in the eastern part of Stephens County, Loco served as a service center for the oil companies. In 1918 the O Nah Dy Well in Duncan was the first to produce oil of commercial value. Soon support businesses to the oil and gas industry were established. In the 1920s Erle P. Halliburton founded the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company in Duncan. The firm continued as a major employer at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Pioneer children received their education in subscription schools until public schools could be established. Dugouts and brush arbors served as early school facilities until frame and brick schools could be built. In 1907 Stephens County supported twenty common schools and three high schools. By the 1930s Stephens County had sixty-five school districts: fifty-seven common school districts, three independent districts (Duncan, Marlow, and Comanche), three consolidated districts, and two union-graded districts. During the Junior College movement, Duncan Junior College was established in 1937. It closed after 1942, possibly due to declining enrollment during World War II. The Red River Area Vo-Tech, established in 1966 in Duncan, and the Oklahoma Missionary Baptist College in Marlow offer higher education. At the turn of the twenty-first century Stephens County had eight school districts: Bray-Doyle, Central High, Comanche, Duncan, Empire, Grandview, Marlow, and Velma-Alma.

The waterways and trails formed the earliest transportation routes. Early roads included the Fort Sill to Fort Towson military road. Following the Civil War, the Chisholm Trail developed to serve Texas cattlemen who drove large cattle herds to Kansas markets. In 1892 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway constructed a line from Minco (in present Grady County) to the Oklahoma-Texas state line that passed through Marlow, Duncan, and Comanche. U.S. Highway 81 runs north and south through Stephens County and basically follows the former Chisholm Trail. State Highways 7, 29, and 53 pass through the county in an east-west direction. At the turn of the twenty-first century two private airports and the Halliburton Field south of Duncan served the county.

During the Great Depression Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects put the unemployed back to work. Among the projects were the construction of the Marlow National Guard Armory (NR 94000282) and the Duncan National Guard Armory (NR 96001490). Both were added in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and in 1996, respectively. Other WPA projects included repair and construction of schoolhouses as well as improvement of roads and water and sanitation systems. The Civilian Conservation Corps, another depression-era federal agency, placed young men in camps to work on departments of interior and agriculture projects. One such camp, constructed between July and September 1935, existed in Duncan at the intersection of Cypress and Fifteenth streets. Men at this camp worked on contouring the county's fields to control soil erosion.

At 1907 statehood Stephens County had 20,148 inhabitants. The population continued to rise over the next three decades from 22,252 in 1910 to 33,069 in 1930. The Great Depression of the 1930s caused a slight decline to 31,090 reported in 1940. However, population rebounded to 34,071 in 1950. Numbers stood at 35,902 in 1970 and peaked at 43,419 in 1980. In 2000 the census reported 43,182, with 88.3 percent white, 4.2 percent American Indian, 4.2 percent Hispanic, and 2.1 percent African American.

At the turn of the twenty-first century outdoor enthusiasts enjoyed Lake Humphreys, Clear Creek Lake, Duncan Lake, Comanche Lake, and Waurika Lake. The Stephens County Historical Museum in Duncan offered displays interpreting local history. In addition to the two National Guard armories, Stephens County had eight other listings in the National Register of Historic Places. They were the Montgomery-Linam House (NR 83002128) in Marlow as well as the Brittain-Garvin House (NR 00001039), the H. C. Chrislip House (NR 93000677), the Duncan Public Library (NR 99001427), W. T. Foreman House (NR 03000512), the Johnson Hotel and Boarding House (NR 86001098), the Patterson Hospital (NR 95001417), and the Louis B. Simmons House (NR 01000207), all located in Duncan. The Duncan Banner, the Comanche Times, and the Marlow Review newspapers informed county residents.