Site Update

It's been a great couple of weeks here at Exploring Oklahoma History. I've been hard at work updating a few things here on the website.

First you'll notice the top menu has some additions. You now have quicker access to elements of the Historic Places Database []; there's a new Reference menu [] to take you to places like the Oklahoma Historical Society, The National Register of Historic Places, and a few other sites to help you explore Oklahoma; and you now have a way to Search [] the website with Google.

Speaking of Google. I've been working on the site's meta data to help improve search results (aka SEO). It's all stuff you'll never see, but Google and Bing just love it. Also related to Google, I've been experimenting with Google's new Matched Content Feature. You'll find it on the very bottom of the website. It's a way to highlight even more of the website.

There have been a few other minor tweaks to some of the layout to clean up mobile viewing, and some other back end code improvements to speed things up a little.

On top of all that I've been endeavoring to clean up some of the missing information in the Historic Places Database. I've been going county by county and at least fill in the place's text and directions as provided by the Oklahoma Historical Society. We're now down to only a hand full of places that don't have that minimal information.

This wasn't as easy as it sounds. Some of that information from the Oklahoma Historical Society was incorrect. I spent hours digging through reference materials and searching and Google, Google Maps, and Bing to find the correct information on those.

Funny. This was kind of the reason we launched this website in the first place. Back when we first started the Oklahoma Historical Society only had a list with the name and county of the historical markers. That was it. The Society has improved their list since then, but it still lacking in details and corrections.

Please if you have any information about an Oklahoma historic place you'd like to share please feel free to pass it along. Pictures and map locations are always welcome.

Well I hope you like the updates, I'm sure there will be more to come when I have time.

— K.