A brilliant, kaleidoscopic narrative of Oklahoma City—a great American story of civics, basketball, and destiny, from award-winning journalist Sam Anderson NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Chicago Tribune • San Francisco Chronicle • The Economist • Deadspin Oklahoma City was born from chaos. It was founded in a bizarre but momentous “Land Run” in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild energy that drives its outsized ambitions, and the forces of order that seek sustainable progress. Nowhere was this dynamic better realized than in the drama of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team’s 2012-13 season, when the Thunder’s brilliant general manager, Sam Presti, ignited a firestorm by trading future superstar James Harden just days before the first game. Presti’s all-in gamble on “the Process”—the patient, methodical management style that dictated the trade as the team’s best hope for long-term greatness—kicked off a pivotal year in the city’s history, one that would include pitched battles over urban planning, a series of cataclysmic tornadoes, and the frenzied hope that an NBA championship might finally deliver the glory of which the city had always dreamed. Boom Town announces the arrival of an exciting literary voice. Sam Anderson, former book critic for New York magazine and now a staff writer at the New York Times magazine, unfolds an idiosyncratic mix of American history, sports reporting, urban studies, gonzo memoir, and much more to tell the strange but compelling story of an American city whose unique mix of geography and history make it a fascinating microcosm of the democratic experiment. Filled with characters ranging from NBA superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; to Flaming Lips oddball frontman Wayne Coyne; to legendary Great Plains meteorologist Gary England; to Stanley Draper, Oklahoma City's would-be Robert Moses; to civil rights activist Clara Luper; to the citizens and public servants who survived the notorious 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, Boom Town offers a remarkable look at the urban tapestry woven from control and chaos, sports and civics.

The establishment of what became Oklahoma's capital city was unique among the states, as it emerged into existence on a single day, April 22, 1889. Throughout the decades that have followed, the heart of Oklahoma City has experienced building and expansion, urban renewal, and improvements made through the Metropolitan Area Projects Program.

Oklahoma City was called “A City Born Grown” after it went from a population of a handful at Oklahoma Depot to over 10,000 on its first day. Nobody seems to mention how the streets were laid crooked and took 80 years to fix by tearing up half of downtown and that two rival city governments aimed guns at one another until the Supreme Court sorted out who was in charge. And that was only its first six months! Secret Oklahoma City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure shares the places and stories that you won’t hear in History class, though you probably should! Learn about the Chinese Tunnels that housed hundreds of immigrant workers underground. Visit the Overholser Mansion and see if the lady of the house is still in, sixty years after her death! Gain new respect for animal heroes at the American Pigeon Museum. Find out what a giant milk bottle is doing on top of an old grocery store off 23rd. Speaking of groceries, did you know the grocery cart was invented on the south side of town? Or that the parking meter got its start in downtown Oklahoma City? Oklahoma farm kid-turned-professor Jeff Provine has spent more than a decade learning the lesserknown tales of OKC. Come with him on a tour of the unexpected side of Oklahoma City.

The story of Oklahoma City would be incomplete without its suburban Midtown, a work-and-play community nearly as old as the city itself. Located along the northern edge of downtown, Midtown has become a surging community of diverse neighborhoods, businesses, and dynamic revitalization efforts within its nearly 387 acres. Among this area's unique attractions are Oklahoma's first hospital, grocery store, and kindergarten, as well as surviving territorial Victorian homes and so much more. These pages contain numerous images--published for the first time--that capture the moments and people from the Midtown community that shaped downtown Oklahoma City. From the first land rush in 1889 to innovations that would change medicine worldwide, this is the story of Oklahoma City's Midtown.

Insiders' Guide to Oklahoma City is the essential source for in-depth travel and relocation information to Oklahoma's captial city. Written by a local (and true insider), it offers a personal and practical perspective of Oklahoma City and its surrounding environs.

Oklahoma City has a fascinating history. By 1907, when Oklahoma became a state, the diversity of business, entertainment, industry, manufacturing, and transportation was experiencing rapid development. Contained within Oklahoma City Rediscovered is the story of four aspects of that development: Deep Deuce with the rise of blues and jazz music, town site development with the goal of establishing a seat of government with the founding of Capitol Hill, manufacturing that led to the warehouse district that evolved into the premier entertainment area known as Bricktown, and transportation with the love affair of the automobile along a major thoroughfare downtown that was devoted to showcasing the latest models of cars to capture the fancy of the public.

From four-term Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, a hopeful and illuminating look at the dynamic and inventive urban centers that will lead the United States in coming years. Oklahoma City. Indianapolis. Charleston. Des Moines. What do these cities have in common? They are cities of modest size but outsized accomplishment, powered by a can-do spirit, valuing compromise over confrontation and progress over political victory. These are the cities leading America . . . and they're not waiting for Washington's help. As mayor of one of America's most improved cities, Cornett used a bold, creative, and personal approach to orchestrate his city's renaissance. Once regarded as a forgettable city in "flyover country," Oklahoma City has become one of our nation's most dynamic places-and it is not alone. In this book, Cornett translates his city's success-and the success of cities like his-into a vision for the future of our country. The Next American City is a story of civic engagement, inventive public policy, and smart urban design. It is a study of the changes re-shaping American urban life-and a blueprint for those to come.

Located in downtown Oklahoma City, Film Row once flourished as a sales hub for theater owners needing films, posters, and concessions for their Midwest venues. The film exchange offices along this three-square-block area and across the cityscape housed major film production studios like Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal, Fox, and Warner Brothers from 1907 until the 1980s. But changes in demographics, economy, and technology nearly wiped their memory from the city landscape. Now these decades-old structures and their nearly forgotten history are being rediscovered and utilized once again for business. This book tells their story through rare images discovered in shoeboxes, back rooms, and the Oklahoma Historical Society's archives. Most of the images within these pages are shared here for the very first time.