Cameron University is Southwest Oklahoma's predominant institution of higher education, offering nearly 50 degrees in professional fields and liberal arts. But it hasn't always been that way.
Cameron is almost as old as this state. In 1908, just a year after statehood, the Oklahoma Legislature authorized the creation of six high schools that focused on the farming profession, including the Cameron State School of Agriculture. CSSA was named for the Rev. E. D. Cameron, a Baptist minister and Oklahoma’s first State Superintendent of Schools. Since a permanent home for the school had yet to be acquired, the first classes were held in the basement of a bank building in downtown Lawton, on Statehood Day 1909.
Ground was broken on a classroom/administration building in 1910 on a tract of land a short distance west of Lawton, along Wolf Creek. A year later, the first classes were held on the new school grounds.
The Cameron State School of Agriculture offered no college degrees in its early days. It was solely a high school and preparatory academy that offered classes in farming, animal husbandry and homemaking to the sons and daughters of farm families in the region. Students raised livestock and crops, and maintained an orchard and dairy as part of their daily studies. Administrators sold produce raised on school grounds to help offset operating costs.
In the 1920s, CSSA added junior college work, then discontinued its high school function in the weeks leading up to World War II. Even with the expansion of course work that accompanied the growth of the state, Cameron maintained its agricultural roots. It still offers agriculture degrees today.
When you arrive at GZ, you will find yourself on the south perimeter of the university. This cache is located at the entry to the school farm. Cameron still owns livestock and conducts agricultural research. You may pull off Lee Boulevard and park in the driveway to search for the cache, but please do not enter the property, since a caretaker's residence is located a short distance to the north.