Cheyenne County was established by an act of the state legislature on 1873-03-06,[4] which defined the original borders of the county as: Commencing where the east line of range 37 west, intersects the fortieth degree of north latitude; thence south with said range line to the first standard parallel; thence west with said parallel to the west line of the State of Kansas; thence north with the state line to the fortieth degree of north latitude; thence east with said parallel to the place of beginning.

[4] Early settlement was in and around Wano, the "T" ranch (the county's first cattle ranch) being established 9 miles (14 km) from there in 1876, and Jacob Buck and the families of A. M. Brenaman, L. R. Heaton, a man named Bateman all settling around the area.

[5] The name Wano was an Anglicization by the settlers of the Spanish word "bueno" meaning "good".

[6] It was not only the name of the post office but of its first newspaper, the Wano News, also run by Brenaman.

[7] Independent county government was finally established in April 1886, by proclamation of Governor John A. Martin in response to a petition from the previous month.

[6] Martin originally proclaimed Bird City as the county seat, as an initial temporary arrangement.

[14] By 1910, the leading crops were (in descending order of value) wheat, corn, barley, hay, and broomcorn.

[1][14] Sources: National Atlas,[15] U.S. Census Bureau[16] The county is in the Central Time zone, but is bordered by the Mountain Time Zone in three directions; it is the only county in the United States to have this characteristic.

[25] In 1886 there were six post offices in the county: Bird City, Calhoun, Lawnridge, Marney, Orlando, and Wano.

[5] In 1888, four had been added — Clugh, Gurney, Jaqua, and Neville — and Wano had become St Francis.

Cheyenne started off in 1883 as a single municipal township attached to Rawlins County for judicial and financial purposes.

[9][8] In the end, the county initially had 13 townships: Beaver, Benkelman, Bird City, Calhoun, Cherry Creek, Cleveland Run, Dent, Eureka, Jaqua, Lawn Ridge, Nuttycombe, Orlando, and Wano.

[28][8] At the start of the 20th century, there were 17 townships: the aforementioned 13 plus Alexander, Evergreen, Jefferson, and Porter, all added some time between 1888 and 1890.