About a year ago, Jack Money and I sought to set up a web site, www.okchistory.com that could be a gathering spot for researching OKC history. We wanted to link various community historians, both professional and amateur, and also allow us to continue to delve into historic topics that interest us as well. Unfortunately, the web site format we chose was inadequate and frequently crashed on us, preventing us from accomplishing all we wanted.

Fortunately, Martin, who many of you know as MMM, has come to our aid and has created an entirely new web site for us that will allow us to finally achieve our ambitions - weekly posts on this week in history, a full section on books relating to OKC history, etc.

We have the test site up now - it's Welcome to OKCHistory.com (http://www.okchistory.com/test) - and within the next week or so we expect to have all the information from the old site moved to the new one.

New features will include the ability to comment on posts (it will require registration - just an email), a search tool and the preservation of information from the now dormant Criterion Group on how to save old structures.

This new site will also allow us to better categorize topics and make finding information much easier. This web site is a non-profit public service (though we do have links to our books) and I hope you find it complements the excellent web site provided by my good friend and ally, Doug Loudenback.

Nice looking site Steve. I haven't had a chance to take a good lok at it yet, maybe this evening. It's nice to see other history buffs around, I was starting to think I was the only one. I checked the book section and didn't see any refrences to "The Vanishing Splendor" series. If its mentioned somewhere forgive me...I'm running kinda late. If not, they would make a good addition to your page. I have volumes I-III, don't know if theres a IV but there should be. Excellent postcards views of okc. I'll try to check out your site when I have more time...thanks for the post. Good Work.

The book section is not added yet, though a rather clumsy copy can be found on the original site www.okchistory.com. We'll be copying that over this weekend.

While Steve is getting his book list up and running, here's a list of Okc history books that I have which includes sample pages, tables of contents, and ordering links:

Doug Dawgz Blog: Okc History Books (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/06/okc-history-books.html)

I can't wait for you to get the "Yearbook Photos" section started ... that should be a hoot!

Just fyi, the switch has been flipped for the new Welcome to OKCHistory.com (http://www.okchistory.com) and all of the material, including the book reviews section, have been copied over.

Glad you got the site up Steve and it has lots to offer. Also, I'm looking forward to the new "Bricktown" book. Will you and Jack be having a signing party at Full Circle?

Perhaps your next effort can document the darker and more colorful side of OKC history. OKC After Hours might be a good working title. There are lots of great stories and colorful characters from our recent past that seldom made the society pages or business section.

The night life and music scene of the Deep Deuce . . . Stockyards Mafia . . . the prohibition era . . . downtown OKC from 1940 to 1960 . . . riding the Inner Urban . . . lots and lots of stories. It's mostly an oral history, so you guys better get going while there are still a few people around and breathing that have some functioning brain cells remaining.

That sounds like the book, ODG.

ODG, that's certainly a possibility. Interestingly enough, we've also got a book coming out in spring, 2009 about the Skirvin hotel.

I for one hope you can get to the Deep Deuce and Stockyards Mafia as those both seem very intriguing...

Good job on the site thanks sharing I'm looking forward to the updates

ODG, that's certainly a possibility. Interestingly enough, we've also got a book coming out in spring, 2009 about the Skirvin hotel.

The scene of many of OKC's most important shindigs in the 40's and 50's and no doubt lots of important decisions were made over drinks in the bar. Didn't the Skirvin have at least a couple of full time residents over the years?

Yep. We learned some fun tales during our research. Hopefully the Skirvin book will be received as a worthy follow-up to OKC Second Time Around.

Steve, will this book be an actual book (crossing fingers), like OKC: Second Time Around, or an Arcadia book?

The Skirvin book will be published by Full Circle; the text is narative like OKC Second Time, and is set to have lots and lots of images. My Bricktown book will be an Arcadia publication, but with more than usual text.