city, seat (1907) of Comanche county, southwestern Oklahoma, U.S., on the Cache Creek. Originally part of the Choctaw-Chickasaw lands in the Indian Territory, the area was settled in 1869 by the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. A settlement near Fort Sill, a military post established to control the Indians, was organized as a city in 1901; it was named for General Henry W. Lawton, who was involved in the campaign to capture the Apache leader Geronimo. Indian lands were then opened to auction, and more than 25,000 white settlers came to participate.

Lawton is in an area of farms, grazing lands, limestone and granite quarries, and oil wells. It is the site of Cameron University (1908). Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is in the vicinity. Inc. 1901. Pop. (1990) city, 80,561; Lawton MSA, 111,486; (2000) city, 92,757; Lawton MSA, 114,996.