LAWTON, Okla. - Population and business are growing and so is the number of awards and honors for the Lawton-Fort Sill community.The "Official Best Of" television company named Lawton-Fort Sill their Official Best City in Oklahoma for 2009. It's not the first best honor for Lawton.  In November, Business Week magazine named Lawton-Fort Sill the Best Place to Raise Kids in Oklahoma.

The Official Best Of company asks visitors to nominate cities and attractions.  They research those places, and make a thirty minute travel TV show for the entire state, with the locations they determine are the best. Lawton-Fort Sill got high marks for its cultural attractions, events, location, livability, and military components.

The Official Best of field producer and cameraman sent to film in Lawton, Kent Dakour, is originally from Oklahoma.  A video veteran of shoots across the country, it was his first experience of the sights and sounds of Lawton.

"We'll probably have six or seven attractions to videotape while we're in Lawton, here in the surrounding areas," Dakour said. "I know we're going out to the Wildlife Refuge.  That's a huge deal, and we're really looking forward to that."

The crew started at Lawton's Great Plains Museum Monday afternoon and also visited the Comanche National Museum. Tuesday's schedule includes stops at the Mattie Beal House and more.

"What a wonderful place this is to come and visit," said Jennifer Tipton, tourism director for the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce. "What there is to do here for you and I, the same is to be offered to visitors. It doesn't matter how old you are, there's always something fun going on here."

Tipton says Lawton deserves this honor, and it will receive a three-minute segment in the upcoming half-hour travel show about the state.

"Lawton-Fort Sill really is the best," Tipton said. "For those who have not experienced it yet, we have many wonderful things to do here.  It's a fun community, great people, within driving distance.  Why not come?"

The Official Best of Television company wasn't the only out-of-town media group in Lawton Monday.

A crew from Tulsa's News Channel 8 shot part of their summer series, "Affordable Adventures," about fun opportunities in our region.

The editor of one of the top travel magazines in England is also in town to write tourism features on Lawton-Fort Sill for several British newspapers.

For more information about the Official Best Of program, visit www.officialbestof.com.