Camp Radziminski also has its tale of buried treasure. The tale has drawn hunters armed with evidence that a government payroll of fourty thousand dollars was shipped by wagon to the camp to pay the soldiers for several months' back salary. Some distance from the camp a bad of raiders seized the gold. Van Dorn's marksment lost little time in overtaking the robbers and shot them all. But when their bodies were examined, no gold was found. Local tradition says that somewhere about the environs of Otter Creek near the old military camp the payroll is still hidden.

Oklahoma Treasures and Treasure Tales By Steve Wilson

Camp Radziminski

A strange turn of events brought the subject of this story, Charles Radziminski, a Polish Revolutionary exile, to a lift of adventure and useful service in his adopted country....

Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 38 (1960) Page 354 (PDF)

Subscribe to the Exploring Oklahoma History Google Currents Edition.

You can also use the shortcut: blogoklahoma.us/currents

Now that election season has officially begun with the Iowa Caucuses, we need to get the word out here in Oklahoma to register to vote.

We only have until February 10th to get people registered to vote for the Presidential Preferential Primary on March 6th.

Voter registration applications are available at your local county election board, post offices, tag agencies, libraries and many other public locations. You can even get an application online from the Oklahoma State Election Board. But remember you must get your application in before February 10th.

Voting is one of the most important things you can do as a citizen. Don’t let people prevent you from voting.

New voter identification laws here in Oklahoma make it very important for you to help your family, friends and neighbors get registered to vote. If they don’t have an Oklahoma drivers licence, a state identification card, a passport, or a military ID, they will need a voter identification card issued by the county election board (even though it does not include a photo or an expiration date).

If you've lost your voter identification card, and you don’t have any of the other forms of identification, head over to your local county elections board and request a new one.

If you’re unsure if you have a valid form of ID, review this checklist: www.ok.gov/elections/documents/valid_id.pdf

If you don’t know where your local county elections board is, check this list. www.ok.gov/elections/documents/cebinfo.pdf

Please get the word out. Help your family, friends, and neighbors get registered to vote before February 10th.

Image credit jcorbridge on Flickr http://flic.kr/p/24gCA

Clinton Route 66 museum will close for renovations (via @Route66News)

The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma will be closing for renovations starting January 1st through at least April 15th. The main exhibit hall will be closed, but the lobby, gift shop, and a special exhibition area will still be available to the public during the renovations. So if you're going to be in the Clinton area during the first quarter of 2012, its still worth a stop to visit the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum.

"The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum will be renovating our exhibit galleries, beginning January 1, 2012. Unfortunately, the galleries will have to be shut down to accomplish this feat; however, the gift shop and the lobby area/Wow! room will be open during normal operating hours. There will also be a special exhibit in the Wow! room that will be free to the public for viewing during normal operationg hours as well. The museum has set a tentative re-opening date for April 15, 2011 - we will post the details about our grand RE-opening as they are readily available...."

From museum web site (http://www.route66.org)

The latest edition of Exploring Oklahoma History on Google Currents is up. If you would like to read it, install Google Currents on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device, then in your mobile browser type in this shortcut: blogoklahoma.us/currents

UPDATE 12/27 2pm: The latest edition of Exploring Oklahoma History on Google Currents is up.  You can now use this shorcut instead of that long link below: http://blogoklahoma.us/currents

We've created Google Currents edition for our web site.

Google Currents is an iOS and Android app that will let you read leading publications and blogs you follow in a swipable magazine format.

The edition is a work in progress, and we'll be fine tuning it for the next couple of weeks. However if you would like to go ahead and access it, first you'll need to install the Google Currents app on your iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod) or Android device, and then point your mobile browser to this link: http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAowg5lG/exploring_oklahoma_history

If you would like to learn how to format your site for Google Currents, check out this article: Publishing Your News Content to Google Currents

Please feel free to post your feedback. More to come... (Happy New Year)

A special Christmas episode of the Blog Oklahoma Podcast is out.

Click Here To Listen

Enjoy and Merry Christmas from the Blog Oklahoma family!

It's that time of the year when things start to slow down to a crawl here on the website. Reason? It's too damn cold to go outside. Ha!

Now just because we don't get the travel around, doesn't mean we'll be completely inactive here at EOH. We're continually editing and adding more Oklahoma historic places, ghost towns, and cemeteries to our database. And we'll continue to be active at Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

So be safe, stay warm, and we'll look forward to visiting a historic place near you in the spring :-) 

The 112th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will take place from December 14, 2011 through January 5, 2012. This massive count takes place across the U.S. and Canada and is sponsored Audubon and Bird Studies Canada.

For more information visit http://birds.audubon.org/cbc