Jackson

Formed November 16, 1907 (45^th county)

Jackson County (24,785), Altus (18,736)

The Classical Revival masonry county courthouse was created in 1910.  It is located at the intersection of United States Highways 62 and 283 (Broadway and Main streets.)  The building is on the city square.  C. E. Hair and Company were the designers of this columned structure.  With the dome removed in 1927, this is the only Jackson County courthouse since the county was created from Greer County on November 16, 1907 as the 45^th county.  Altus has always been the county seat.  A statue of a cowboy sits in front of the building.  Jackson County is named for Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.  Altus gets its name from the Latin word for “high place.” 

Jackson County government consists of a treasurer, a sheriff, an assessor, and a clerk (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Seven District Court Judges serve Jackson, Greer, Harmon, Kiowa and Tillman counties and a court clerk serves Jackson County (judicial.)  The county is in southwest Oklahoma west of Lawton, Oklahoma on the border with Texas.  The county center is 3.9 miles Southwest of Altus.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Greer, Kiowa, and Tillman and Texas and Harmon County. 

The area of the county is 803 square miles.  It is 40 out of 77 in the state.  It ranks 36 out of 77 in population in the state.  It has a density of 30.9 persons per square mile making it 35 out of 77 in the state.  Jackson County has 84.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 62 crosses the county east to west from Tillman County into Harmon County.  United States Highway 283 goes north to south from Greer County to Texas.  The Red River is the southern border, the North Fork of the Red River is the eastern border, and the Salt Fork of the Red River crosses the county from north to south.  There is no standard shape to the county with the rivers wandering the east and south borders.  The north and west borders are steps from east to west.  Altus is slightly north and east of the geographical center of this county.  Altus is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 75.6% of the county population.  The county seat is pronounced AL-TUS.  This county is in the Altus Micropolitan Statistical Area.