Modern-Day Adventures Explore the Forgotten

The Oklahoma Gazette, August 10th, 2010

http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-6534-modern-day-adventurers-explore-the-abandoned-and-forgotten-buildings-of-oklahoma.html

Heide Brandes August 5th, 2010

The Bryant Center at N.E. 23rd Street and Interstate 35 was a community center for the city's African-American population. Martin Luther King Sr. and Clara Luper spoke there in its heyday. Residents gathered to talk and share fellowship. Gamblers traded faded bills and rolled worn dice.

It was the gambling that put an end to the place.

"It got shut down as a gambling ring," said Justin Moore.

Now, the Bryant Center sits empty and abandoned " one of hundreds of old, forgotten places in Oklahoma that are full only of peeling paint, crumbled roofs and distinctive history.

Moore and Cody Cooper are two of a handful of urban explorers on a mission to examine these spots as part of the organization Abandoned Oklahoma. They call themselves "urban archeologists," with one of the largest databases of abandoned places in the nation.