Residents might well wonder if they forgot to vote sometime in the past or if there was something on the back of a ballot that they missed. I know I've been telling everyone for the past few years that I live in Lawton. But,it seems  I was wrong.  According to the 2007 Centennial map of Oklahoma "issued by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation as authorized by the Oklahoma Transportation Commission," the name of our town is "Lawton/Ft. Sill."

Some 2,000,000 copies of the map have been produced and distributed to travel centers across the country. Tens of thousands of tourists, business people and newcomers to our state may well look at the map and comment, "Hey, Marge, here's a city in this state called Lawton Fort Sill -- or is that Lawton Foot Sill?"

The map does not list the Army post as Lawton/Ft. Sill Military Reservation. It's just Ft. Sill Military Reservation. Directly to its South is the city of Lawton/Ft. Sill.

Most area boosters have long referred to our "Lawton Fort Sill community." But, now Lawton/Ft. Sill is on the official Oklahoma map produced by the state government.

Giving this name change some credence is that fact that Fort Sill has been annexed by the City of Lawton. Part of it anyway. The part where the people live. It's pretty common knowledge that the push was made to do this in the late 1990s to jack up the population before the 2000 U.S. Census was taken. The population increase was an attempt to beat out Norman (which takes in the University of Oklahoma student housing) as the state's third largest city. But a glance at the ol' map shows that there is no town known as
Norman/University of Oklahoma.

Personally, I've always been partial to that great outdoor resource that's nearby. Let me go on record as proposing a name change to Lawton/Ft. Sill/Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. There's an "I love ..." bumper sticker that'll stretch all the way across a Hummer.