Driving across the flat of Oklahoma the arrival of Quartz Mountain catches you off guard. Though still impressive, millions of years of erosion have whittled the mountain down to a more manageable size. Quartz Mountain State Park was one of those wonderful Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work projects, which built infrastructure throughout America. Depression-era CCC projects have a style and craftsmanship all their own. Americans have been enjoying them for decades. The original lodge for the park was destroyed in a fire in 1995, but a beautiful new lodge has been built to replace it. The lodge is nestled alongside Quartz Mountain and on the shore of Lake Altus in southwest Oklahoma. The lodge's restaurant is in a beautiful setting. As I was having dinner in the restaurant, a family reunion was gathering at the table next to me. One-by-one each family member would stand and say, "My name is so-and-so and I am the such-and-such relative of W.C. Austin." Each person would describe how they were related to this man. Because each family member stated the name W.C. Austin with such reverence and pride, W.C. must have been someone special, but I had never heard of him.
The next day while tooling along one of the park bike trails near the boat ramp, I came upon a granite monument for W.C. Austin. The carved text stated that his life was dedicated to his community and fellow man...."Who asked as his reward for accomplishment only another chance to serve." Though an Oklahoma State Senator, evidently Will Rogers was not referring to him -- W.C. was different. Born in Arkansas, the 4th of 6 children, William Claude Austin was ambitious and of good character. He learned the practice of the law, married and left poverty in Arkansas for the wild and wooly Oklahoma Territory in the winter of 1901-1902. That first winter the young couple huddled in an unheated silo for shelter. They bounced around various small towns before settling in the town of Altus. The town was originally called Bitter Creek, but a flood wiped out the town, so they moved to higher ground and named the new town Altus, Latin for higher ground. Cotton was the main crop, the lifeblood of the community. W.C. ran a post office, drug store, did some farming, and a variety of things to make a living before he established his legal practice, eventually becoming a judge. He and his wife had six children. He was a community leader, a deacon in his First Baptist Church. When the minister departed, W.C. temporarily took over his duties. This part of Oklahoma only gets about 26-inches of rain with cycles of drought or flooding. The most frequent prayers in his church were either for rain or for the rain to please stop. In part, to answer those prayers W.C. became involved in the quest to dam the north fork of the Red River as a more reliable water source for Altus, irrigation, and flood control purposes.
The devastation of the Dust Bowl drove 18.3% of the population away from Oklahoma in 1930, the worst of any state, 440,000 disillusioned people disappeared. W.C. did not. He rolled up his sleeves, became the driving force in transforming the area to agricultural prosperity. For ten years he wrote letters, sent telegrams, held meetings, twisted arms, and went to Washington D.C. to lobby for flood control and irrigation help. All his considerable efforts were without pay and most of his expenses were on his dime. He was not in politics for money. Politics cost him dearly, but he was happy in his cause.
W. C. Austin's dam project became his purpose, as well as a WPA work project to employ 300 workers. Even though the standard was to build dams of concrete, cut masonry was chosen to help employ more people and for aesthetic reasons. Tons of cut granite blocks were carved out of nearby Rattlesnake Mountain. Construction began April 1941. With the coming of World War II labor became scarce as well as machinery and resources, but construction continued. W.C. pushed to have the project considered necessary for the war effort. State Highway 9 had to be rerouted as well as the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad line. They adapted to the shortages by changing the design to a hybrid concrete and masonry dam. As construction was coming to a close, W.C. died of a prolonged illness. He did not make an effort to name the dam after himself. However, people were so appreciative of his service to the community they changed the name from the Altus Project to the W.C. Austin Project.
The purpose of the impounded Lake Altus was flood control and irrigation, not recreation. So frequently the shoreline becomes distant from the lodge. With 52 miles of irrigation canals, agriculture productivity surged with the completion of the dam. Cotton, which was previously not worth picking, with irrigation became plants 5-foot tall loaded with bolls. The area bloomed again and much of that occurred because of the effort of one man. So now, it is understandable why his descendants state W.C. Austin's name with pride and reverence.
Take a walk with Birkenstock.
