![]() Great Wolf Resorts is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to a water park, each resort features restaurants, arcades, spas, and children's activities. The company owns and operates its family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge brand. Great Wolf Resorts (formerly known as Great Wolf Lodge) is a chain of indoor water parks. I didn’t really mind paying extra for that “lakeside view” – it was nice and quiet facing away from the courtyard and main building – but maybe they should rethink their pricing and be as transparent as possible about the water situation.Apollo Global Management, Centerbridge Partners and Blackstone Group There are still ways to access the lake for boating and other recreation, but I wish it was a lot clearer to visitors that photos showing lake water lapping at the shores around the Lodge are outdated. “Cotton makes more money than anything else, the farmers paid to build that lake in the 1930’s to help them grow it, and that’s what they’re going to continue doing.” Maybe an 80-year-old plan for water to grow cotton might need some rethinking, even though cotton is the state’s fourth-largest export after oil, gas, and wheat? I’ll never forget what an Altus local said when I asked him about it: The tap water I drank at Quartz Mountain Lodge looked and tasted just fine, by the way. The Altus Air Force Base apparently gets a lot of questions about water quality in town, because they have a PDF to address Altus water FAQs. They tried a reverse osmosis plant for a few years, too, but that didn’t work out. The largest nearby town, Altus, even uses water wells in northern Texas over the state border, drawing from the Seymour Aquifer, to ensure sufficient drinking water when there isn’t enough from their servicing reservoir. It turns out that Lake Altus-Lugert was built in the 1930’s and 1940’s to service the agricultural ambitions of the region, not for drinking water or recreation or pretty lakeside views or anything else. That’s where those southwest Oklahoma cotton fields and irrigation channels that I saw enter the picture. I understand drought conditions, have lived through them myself in 2011 in Texas, and I know that some regions of Oklahoma suffer drought conditions fairly regularly, but seeing a pile of tires on dirt where there should be water was sad and disturbing. The main building was reconstructed after a 1995 fire, but it still has that original rustic CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) feeling.ĭrought conditions at Lake Altus-Lugert expose big boat bumpers made of lashed-together tires – normally up floating near the rocks – as seen from my room at the Quartz Mountain Lodge. I passed a water park, a small amusement park, a number of campgrounds and trail heads inside the actual state park, plus lots of views of the southern end of Lake Altus-Lugert. It’s about three miles from where you turn onto what becomes the Park Road, and arriving at the property where the road ends. I learned later that there was a direct connection to my experience staying in a Lodge lakeside room. After client work and seeing some of the sights in and around Lawton in southwest Oklahoma, I was finally close enough to pay a visit and spend the night.ĭuring the drive to the Lodge, I saw a lot of cotton fields and open irrigation channels, which were surprising to find in this semi-arid region. Oklahoma-based author and friend Becky McCray told me about Quartz Mountain Lodge and Resort years ago, and it sounded like a place that should be better known. When you combine historic Quartz Mountain State Park (one of the original seven Oklahoma State Parks) with beautiful lodging and the option to do a whole bunch of activities or nothing at all, you have my attention. Fire pits waiting for sunset at Quartz Mountain Lodge, in southwest Oklahoma.
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