Final resting place for many famous plains warriors like Geronimo of the Apaches and Quanah Parker of the Comanches, the area is rife with reminders of its past. Battles of yesteryear are recalled by relics preserved at Fort Sill, legendary military outpost since 1869 and now the Army's largest field artillery training center

Gazing at the antelope and buffalo of the 59,000-acre Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, one can easily imagine an Indian hunting party emerging from behind a boulder in pursuit of the herd.

The Lawton Service Unit includes the Lawton Indian Hospital, the Anadarko Health Center, the Carnegie Health Center, and a health station at the Riverside Indian School.

Lawton Indian Hospital

This full-service facility offers inpatient care including general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, and pediatrics, as well as outpatient services in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, nursing, optometry, and audiology to name a few. There is also a community health staff of nurses, educators, social workers, and sanitarians.

Over 2100 adult and pediatric admissions annually combine with almost 65,000 outpatient visits to make this a busy health care facility.

In the obstetrics/gynecology clinic a colposcope -- described as a microscope on wheels -- is often used to further examine patients who have registered abnormal Pap smears. By magnifying the tissue of the cervix during a pelvic exam, the scope affords sufficient visibility of cervical cell structure to permit identification of abnormalities for biopsy. This type of directed biopsy is far preferable to a more generalized one.

The gastrointestinal laboratory boasts an endoscope which is used both for upper GI studies (as an esophagoscope) and for lower GI studies (as a colonoscope). This instrument applies flexible fiber- optic technology diagnostically to identify bleeding sites and perform cancer screening, and therapeutically to excise small colon tumors and control bleeding through cauterization.

The hospital continually provides medical rotations for intern students in pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology from the Hillcrest Community Hospital in Oklahoma City.

The city of Lawton, only 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, has a population of nearly 82,000. Surrounded by mountains and small lakes, the city enjoys a stable economy, largely due to the 26,000 service personnel on active duty at Fort Sill and an equal number of former Army members who chose to make Lawton their home after retiring from the service.

A high priority among Lawtonians is education as indicated by their 35 elementary schools, four junior high schools and three high schools, their Great Plains Area Vocational-Technical School, and the presence of Cameron University. The latter is a state-supported liberal arts institution with strong ties to the area's industrial community.

For leisure time activities, Lawton offers city parks (78 of them!), theaters, a philharmonic orchestra, museums, and libraries. Outdoor activities within the city limits include golf, tennis, and the team sports of football, soccer, and softball.

Two city-owned recreational lakes near the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge attract swimmers, boaters, and fishermen as well as campers, bicyclists, picnickers, hikers, and mountain climbers.

Arts festivals, rodeos, and Cameron University's sports contests round out the recreational agenda.

The Anadarko Health Center

The beautiful 20,000-square-foot facility performs all the usual outpatient and community services. Its clinical laboratory, its radiology department, and its dental clinic all gleam with the latest in high-technology instruments and contemporary design.

Also in Anadarko is the Riverside Indian School, site of an IHS health station. This facility and nearby Carnegie Health Center are staffed through outreach services rather than with resident full-time physicians.

In addition to the advantages of small-town living. Anadarko features a number of museums and memorials of its plains Indian heritage -- especially at Indian City, where examples of early dwellings and traditional arts and crafts have been lovingly preserved for modern man to see.

Local shopping, dining, and entertainment selections can be supplemented conveniently by forays into Chickasha, 20 miles to the east, to Lawton, 41 miles southwest, and to Oklahoma City.