The city was begun shortly after the 1889 land rush and named for the nearby Fort Reno.

The land of Canadian County belonged to the historic Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the time of European encounter.

In 1874, the United States established a fort to supervise the area and General Philip Sheridan took command.

The Village of El Reno originated shortly after the 1889 land run, with the post office coming into being in June of that year.

The western side was opened in 1892, when the federal government also made some Cheyenne and Arapaho lands available for settlement by non-Native Americans.

[4] In 1932, the United States Southwestern Reformatory was constructed about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of El Reno.

The POW cemetery has been preserved and has stones bearing the names of German and Italian prisoners who died there.

[4] The laboratory studies environmentally sustainable forage and livestock production, contributing to preservation of the Great Plains of North America.

[8] Since 1988 El Reno holds an annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival in downtown the first Saturday in May.

[9] In 2001, El Reno was the first city in Oklahoma to re-establish streetcar service in the downtown area: the Heritage Express Trolley.

The Heritage Express was installed with aid of a federal transportation grant and as part of a complex project also to improve the downtown's streets and drainage system.

[7] The former train depot and some other buildings were acquired by the Canadian County Historical Society for adaptive use as part of a museum complex.

[9] Buildings in the town that are on the National Register of Historic Places include the Carnegie Library, El Reno High School, and the Mennoville Mennonite Church.

The tornado killed a total of 9 people, injured 181 others, and had winds measured at up to 295 mph[12] by mobile doppler radar near Interstate 40.

[13] Two years later, on May 31, 2013, rural areas near El Reno were hit by a record-breaking multiple-vortex tornado.

Multiple storm chasers, including Mike Bettes and Dan Robinson, were injured, and Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young of the TWISTEX team, alongside amateur Richard Henderson, were killed.

Touching down at 10:32 pm, the tornado damaged a service station before moving east-northeastward and crossing Interstate 40.

East of Highway 81, the tornado damaged an automobile service building and a house on Route 66.

The tornado caused tree damage before dissipating on Alfadale Road north of Route 66.