ALTUS

city, seat (1907) of Jackson county, southwestern Oklahoma, U.S. The original settlement of Frazier (1886), near Bitter Creek (Salt Fork of the Red River), was subject to flooding and was moved 4 miles (6 km) east in 1891 to the present site on higher ground and renamed Altus (high place). Demand for agricultural products stimulated the city's growth during World War I, but during the Great Depression and drought in the 1930s it became part of Oklahoma's Dust Bowl. The nearby W.C. Austin Reclamation Project (the state's first large irrigation project, completed in 1948) restored the region's basic agricultural economy (cotton, cattle, and wheat). Altus Reservoir, the project's chief unit, impounded on the North Fork of the Red River by Lugert Dam, lies within Quartz Mountain State Park, 18 miles (29 km) north. The city is the site of Western Oklahoma State College (1926) and Altus Air Force Base. Inc. town, 1901; city, 1919. Pop. (1990) 21,910; (1994 est.) 22,303.