Altus is a city in and the county chair of Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,813 at the 2010 census, a loss of 7.7 percent compared to 21,454 in 2000.

Altus is house to Altus Air Force Base, the United States Air Force training base for C-17, KC-46 and KC-135 aircrews. It is also home to Western Oklahoma State College and Southwest Technology Center.

The town that would future be named Altus was founded in 1886. The community was originally called “Frazer”, a concurrence of roughly 50 people upon Bitter Creek that served as a trading post on the Great Western Cattle Trail. Cowboys driving herds northward often stopped to buy buttermilk from John McClearan. Thus, the town was known locally as “Buttermilk Station”. The Frazer reveal office opened February 18, 1886. A flash flood nearly destroyed Frazer on June 4, 1891. The residents moved to complex ground 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of the original site. W. R. Baucum suggested renaming the town “Altus”, a Latin word meaning “high”. This herald stuck, although the town was then known as “Leger” from July 10, 1901, to May 14, 1904.

The city has seen relatively steady deposit since the beginning. The population doubled along with the grow old of Oklahoma statehood and the 1910 census and even increased during the Great Depression. Although Altus had been designated as the Jackson county seat at the time of statehood, an election was held in 1908 to determine the steadfast seat. The two towns contending were Altus and Olustee. Altus won by a vote of 2,077 to 1,365. The county courthouse was built there in 1910. An irrigation project in the 1940s and World War II led to further addition in the town as the simple airfield was used to train military pilots.