Payne county is located in central Oklahoma with Stillwater, home of Oklahoma State University, serving as the county seat.
Major waterways in the county include the Cimarron River, which forms the southwestern line with Logan County on its way east, Lake Carl Blackwell and a small portion of Lake McMurtry in the northwest section of the county.
History buffs will want to visit the Irvings Castle near Ingalls, the Jim Thorpe House in Yale and the Hopkins Sandstone House and Farmstead near Ripley.
The county population on July 1, 1999, was 65,418, an increase of 3,911 over the 1990 census.