Garfield County was created by an act of the Kansas state legislature on March 23, 1887.

During a vote on this issue held in 1887, Bat Masterson and twenty deputies from Dodge City were sent to the county to keep the peace.

Eminence immediately challenged the results, claiming a construction crew working on Ravanna's new $10,000 courthouse (nicknamed the "Great White Elephant") had illegally cast 60 votes using names of dead men who were not Ravanna residents.

In 1892, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that Garfield County had indeed been illegally organized in the first place.

Garfield Township covers an area of 431.14 square miles (1,116.6 km2) and contains no incorporated settlements.