[JDproAV]

If I were looking for something outside the cities of OK, with less addiction, and bonus if it's hilly or mountainous, which places should I be looking into?

[StillwaterTownie]

Lawton has rocky hills and isn't too small, but don't know about its drug problems. What town doesn't have that problem?

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Lawton has rocky hills and isn't too small, but don't know about its drug problems. What town doesn't have that problem?

They're mountains. At least that's what the map calls them.

My wife works for the Oklahoma Health Department, specifically the Mental Health division, and Comanche County's drug abuse rate is 52 out of 77; that's good, being #1 is not. For a city its size it really doesn't offer much, but the diverse terrain and excellent Elgin and Cache school systems are quite the draw around here.

[JDproAV]

Sounds like a nice option. Is there any less tornado threat there than the rest of the state?

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by JDproAV

Sounds like a nice option. Is there any less tornado threat there than the rest of the state?

There has been one in the general area (2011), out west with no damage at all. The worst ones seem to originate near Chickasha or Elgin and track northeast toward OKC and Tulsa, et al, but that really doesn't mean much. In fact, I have seen exactly as many tornadoes in OK as my birth state of AZ, one each.

The risk of a tornado is real in the state, but it is VERY well tracked. All the local TV stations have significant warning and tracking capabilities (although OKC's channel 9 has taken it to the extreme and tracks cells for hours that produce nothing more than a quarter inch of rain and winds that knock over some old lady's lounge chair on her deck), and most municipalities have robust warning systems. The threat is generally communicated days in advance and refined very well as the day of an outbreak approaches. Ice storms are more debilitating and widespread and are generally predicted well in advance.

Having a NOAA weather radio is a big plus, although the thing goes off almost non-stop due to the way the NWS and FEMA have subdivided counties. It's a great way to learn the name and location of the nearest of the 77 counties in the state.

[bagster]

The only mountainous place I can think of that wouldn't have much of a drug or tornado problem would be Kenton:

https://www.google.com/search?source...w=1536&bih=750

[eddie gein]

The most "mountainous" place in Oklahoma by setting...small towns

1) Talihina
2) Heavener
3) Poteau
4) Wilburton
5) Wister
6) Broken Bow (although Broken Bow is the only one that is fully in the Piney Woods part of Oklahoma
7) Antlers (Edge of mountains/Edge of Piney Woods)
8) Panama(sits in the shadow of Cavanal Hill)

There are a few small hamlets that have schools in the mountains like Whitesboro, Hodgeon, Summerfield, Leflore, Red Oak, Kinta, Bokoshe.

Can't really speak to drug problems but Wilburton and Poteau both have small junior colleges and are reasonably nice communities.

Lawton is a good sized city/Army town. Not small by any stretch. And Kenton is really just a store, church and post office. Not really a "town".

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by bagster

The only mountainous place I can think of that wouldn't have much of a drug or tornado problem would be Kenton:

https://www.google.com/search?source...w=1536&bih=750

Don't see why anybody would want to live there. There aren't even any fences lining the highway. A Wal-Mart is over an hour away. And colder during the winter.

[Johnhw2]

OP another option to consider is Durant, down near the Texas border and red river, about an hour and a half from Dallas. Its a college town, got a nice casino closer to the border with Texas and is the fastest growing county in Oklahoma that is not suburban OKC or Tulsa.

It identifies more with Texas than Oklahoma City or Tulsa as it is much closer to DFW than either big Oklahoma cities. Its a little hilly down there and not too far from the mountains referred to up thread. Its crime stats are skewed high by the huge number of casino guests in town who can experience crime but do not count in the demotivator of population so the stats are high but skewed so by this denominator understatement

Give it a look if anyt8ing sounds of interest to you. It has not been very tornado prone. My sister home schooled her first four kids there but sent them to a private high school associated with their church when the fifth came along. Durant has a strong musical history with the collage fine arts program bringing in national groups to do concerts and the casino gets top name entertainment too. There is a huge lake 10 miles west of town, Texoma.

I grew up there along with two brothers who got Phd's in music from a top national school. Im the slacker with a Chemical Engineering undergrad degree and MBA. My point is the public schools worked out good for us and continue to have a good reputation today