We, the co-authors of this book, are a father and his son who live in nearby rural Rogers County. The father, T. Gavin King, a retired attorney, has visited Clear Creek more than 200 times since its founding in 1999, and his son, Theodore J. King, has been a frequent visitor and worked for the monks as a fundraiser necessitated for them to be able to construct additional and larger facilities than those in place when they acquired their property. We have not dared to attempt to write all the Clear Creek story because to do so would be a herculean endeavor we could not achieve because we are not monks who live there and are not ecclesiastical scholars or trained historians. Moreover, there is a wonderful mystery about Clear Creek Abbey that is, we believe, incapable of fathoming and, therefore, incapable of being told.

What we have attempted is to show what many people, like the families who have come from other states near to and far from Oklahoma and have brought property close to the monastery and relocated their homes and businesses to be near the monks, know. What they and we know is that Clear Creek is an extraordinarily fascinating monastery that inspires everyone who visits the place as no other monastery in the United States does. We and they believe, as a visitor from Long Island, New York noted in the visitors’ registry: “America needs Clear Creek.”