The history of such a "new" state is intrinsically colorful, and the stages of growth and development make for the rise and fall of towns and small cities for a wide variety of reasons. The white man mostly ignored Oklahoma prior to the 1840s, giving said growth and development a dynamic unique among the states.

The author has collected several dozen stories of such locales, and in addition a vast collection of historical photos and plats, gives regional maps, dates, names, commerce info, populations, etc. His monographs on each "ghost town" (a few of which still exist but are seemingly at the end stage of their existence) are well written, informative, and suitably colorful.

Oklahoma has towns that were relocated en toto for the building of reservoirs, towns that were founded as socialist experiments, towns that served primarily as Indian trading posts and withered with the relocation of tribes, etc. Each story is intriguing in its own right, history buff or not. The only reason I rate it less than five stars is its publication date of 1978; an update with rewrites and newly mined information would be wonderful.