Altus, Oklahoma
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Date: 07/01/2019

Altus, Oklahoma, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=130261 / CC BY SA 3.0

Altus, Oklahoma

Altus (pronounced AL-tus) is a city and the county seat in Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,813 at the 2010 census, a loss of 7.7 percent compared to 21,454 at the 2000 census.

Altus is home to Altus Air Force Base, the United States Air Force training base for C-17, KC-46 and KC-135 aircrews. It is also home to Western Oklahoma State College and Southwest Technology Center.

The town that would later be named Altus was founded in 1886. The community was originally called "Frazer", a settlement of about 50 people on Bitter Creek that served as a trading post on the Great Western Cattle Trail. Cowboys driving herds northward often stopped to buy buttermilk from John McClearan. Thus, the town was known locally as "Buttermilk Station". The Frazer post office opened February 18, 1886. A flash flood nearly destroyed Frazer on June 4, 1891. The residents moved to higher ground east of the original site. W. R. Baucum suggested renaming the town "Altus", a Latin word meaning "high". This name stuck, although the town was also known as "Leger" from July 10, 1901, to May 14, 1904.

The city has seen relatively steady growth since the beginning. The population doubled between the time of Oklahoma statehood and the 1910 census and even increased during the Great Depression. Although Altus had been designated as the Jackson county seat at the time of statehood, an election was held in 1908 to determine the permanent seat. The two towns contending were Altus and Olustee. Altus won by a vote of 2,077 to 1,365. The county courthouse was built there in 1910. An irrigation project in the 1940s and World War II led to further growth in the town as the nearby airfield was used to train military pilots.

Altus was an important city on the defunct Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway, one of the Frank Kell and Joseph A. Kemp properties, which stretche...