[Bobby H]

Lawton has an exaggerated reputation of being a rough city. The fact of the matter is both Oklahoma City and Tulsa have significantly higher crime rates and much larger problems with street gangs.

That's not to say Lawton is without problems. I just have to point out the fact a lot of people love to blow it out of proportion. It's just like so many people claim a tornado was involved if their house suffers some roof damage in a severe thunderstorm. The city of Lawton even has to sound the tornado sirens during an ordinary severe thunderstorm to make those kinds of people happy.

To get back to the original topic (rather than the same old, usual "Lawton is the roughest town around" hoopla), there's numerous areas around the Wichita Mountains where one can find a home. Some of the developments, such as Oak Meadows, have pretty high priced properties -at least high priced relative to the Lawton Fort Sill area.

[Jadeswan]

Just a comment on the discussion of Lawton---I think one reason Lawton is described as so rough is because other towns in the area--such as Duncan---are so nice and friendly. It gets a bad name more because of contrast than anything else. I have lived there in the past and while I would prefer not to live there again, it's really not that bad for a town of its size. I shop there regularly and never feel unsafe.

Good luck on finding your dream spot to retire. I agree, the Wichita Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place.

[Bobby H]

Duncan is very nice, but not picture perfect either. Duncan has a street gang element of its own. A gang murder happened a couple weeks ago in broad daylight at a park in Duncan -a likely retaliation for a murder that happened a few days earlier in Lawton.

Until the Nik Green Law was passed limiting the sale of pseudoephedrine in cold medicines, many rural areas in Oklahoma were riddled with meth labs.

[OchocoWesterner]

Originally Posted by baby blackbird

Beware of Cache, Geronimo and some of the small towns. I have lived in Lawton for 40 years and it does have a bad gang problem, probably worse than the big cities because these are just wanna be gang bangers there are no structure in them. Cache has always been rated one of the nations biggest drug problems within a small town.

My family has lived in Cache since 1977. People are moving to this little town as fast as houses can be built for them, so I don't think many have read the news that Cache has one of the nations biggest drug problems, as a matter of fact I don't recall reading that either. The schools are some of the finest in the state, with state of the art facilities. Contrary to public belief, having a higher than average Native American population doesn't automatically mean you have a higher than average drug problem. There are just as many Caucasians who live in Comanche county with the same life struggles.

I would highly recommend to anyone living in Cache over Lawton especially if you have school age children.

[Bobby H]

Business Week magazine released its 2009 edition of the Best Places to Raise Your Kids list. They picked at least one town from every state. Surprisingly, Lawton was picked in this list. Runners up in OK were Broken Arrow and Midwest City. The list balances many factors including cost of living.
The Best Places to Raise Your Kids 2009: Oklahoma - BusinessWeek

[Mz. Mowatt]

@ LML.... i grew up in Cache, Indiahoma, and Lawton. if you want to live in a small suburb type town that is close to the mountains and close enough to get to city attractions and so fourth; i would check out Cache. it is a good town. i just moved from there 2 years ago. and needless to say.... I miss it.

[Mz. Mowatt]

Cache is a small, quiet town. If you keep to yourself and don't hang with the druggies that are floating around, you should be okay. it is a good environment to live in. And of course I'm sure you don't know any of them, so you would be okay.