We recently connected with Amy Hedges and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

When I first started Forgotten Oklahoma, there was really no other Oklahoma history related page on Facebook. I had taken photos of abandoned buildings for years with my grandmother and had started posting them on Instagram and Facebook. My dad encouraged me to start a page for it because so many people were liking my photos. When I started the original Forgotten Oklahoma page in 2013, I was just trying to show off my own photography. Very quickly other people started submitting their own photos of abandoned houses and buildings to me so I could share. It became so popular so quickly I got pretty overwhelmed but excited that people loved taking photos of abandoned places like I did. I had so many submissions I couldn’t keep up. About a year later I started the Forgotten Oklahoma Group to make it easier for people to submit their own photos. The group eventually turned into an all-around Oklahoma history page. About a year into it, people started asking me to make calendars of my photos and also group shirts. That was the beginning of turning Forgotten Oklahoma for a business. I initially worked out of my house mailing orders but in 2019 I became the tag agent (now called licensed operator) for Service Oklahoma and own my own DMV. I was able to purchase a historic building in downtown Pawnee that was once a bank owned by Pawnee Bill. We have restored the building, and it now serves as the headquarters for Forgotten Oklahoma as well as the Pawnee Tag Agency. I actually became the tag agent to save the building. I needed to have a steady job to pay for the repairs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have taken photos since I was a teenager when I carried around my old 35mm camera, driving the backroads of Oklahoma with my granny. Oklahoma history was something that always just fascinated me. Envisioning the people that came before me and what the houses would have looked at with someone living in it. In 2013 I got into people photography as well, but my passion has always been historic buildings and houses. Forgotten Oklahoma has really become a close-knit community, with people connecting from all over, making new friends and even finding family members. I have had a lot of people donate historical items to me to display at our headquarters so we kind of have a little museum inside from all over Oklahoma. We get a lot of visitors who are able to take a tour of the old bank and the original vault. We have a gift shop inside, selling things such as Forgotten Oklahoma t-shirts, calendars, hats, souvenirs, jewelry, purses, and more. We also sell online on our website www.forgottenok.com. Our gift shop name is Wildfire Trading Co. Thru this process we have also been able to acquire 3 historic homes that we are restoring into AirBnB’s, and a full service bed and breakfast and wedding venue. We are in the process of construction.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We use Shopify for our online store. I do like how it looks and once it was set up it is now fairly easy to use and seems to work good on the customer side. It was a pain to set up initially though. I probably should have paid someone to set it up, but I did it myself. Now that I have been doing it for so many years it is easier.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Yes, Forgotten Oklahoma is inside the Pawnee Tag Agency which is my main source of income. We are a full-service DMV, doing drivers licenses, car registration, title work, & Pikepass pickup.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.forgottenok.com
• Instagram: @forgottenoklahoma
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/forgottenoklahoma
• Other: Tiktok: @forgottenoklahoma