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Alva is a city in and the county seat of Woods County, Oklahoma, located along the Salt Fork Arkansas River in the northwestern part of the state.

Alva was established in 1893 as a United States General Land Office site for the Cherokee Outlet land run of September 16, 1893, the largest of the land rushes that settled western and central Oklahoma.

Before the run, Alva's 320-acre townsite had already been formally surveyed and platted, and the Secretary of the Interior had chosen it as the seat of what was then called County M.

Alva is home to the main campus of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, founded in 1897 as Northwestern Territorial Normal School, the second normal school established in Oklahoma Territory.

The university's first classes met in the Congregational Church under President James E. Ament and a faculty of just two teachers.

Northwestern's original main building, completed in 1899 and nicknamed the 'Castle on the Hill,' burned in 1935 and was replaced by Jesse Dunn Hall, which Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated in 1937.

Northwestern Oklahoma State University, with an enrollment hovering around 2,000 students, is Alva's largest employer and the educational and cultural center of northwest Oklahoma.

Alva's population was 5,028 at the 2020 census, up from 4,945 in 2010, making it by far the largest community in Woods County.

Agriculture has been the basis of Alva's economy since its founding, and the city also hosts a campus of the Northwest Technology Center.

The Alva Review-Courier, the city's newspaper, is published three times a week.