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Travel West guide to unique destinations, sight-seeing, history and
culture, budget travel vacation ideas for the U.S., Canada and Caribbean.
Travel Bargain destination in Oklahoma
NATIONAL
COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM
Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City
When
I say cowboy, you say Texas…or
Montana or Colorado. Bzzz. No. Oklahoma. Originally known as the Cowboy
Hall of Fame, this emporium
of all things cowboy has grown from a collection of donated rodeo items
into an impressive cornucopia of western art, memorabilia, detailed history
of the American Cowboy from the early days of open range cattle drives
to western Hollywood movies and rodeo. From the first glimpse of the
outsized giant statue of Buffalo Bill rearing on his show horse within
sight of the highway passing just north of Oklahoma’s capital,
to the life size replica indoors western town, the National Cowboy & Western
Heritage Museum of Oklahoma City makes for a must visit for anyone with
the slightest fascination with that most American of cultural phenomenon
and historical past as the riders of the range.
Oklahoma City is home to the largest cattle stockyard in the United
States, so fitting as the location of the largest western museum. On
entrance,
the visitor is greeted by the hauntingly evocative outsized scale of
the James Earle Fraser sculpture, the End of the Trail, 18 feet tall
image of a horseback Indian exhausted from his long ride, now at rest
dramatically glowing in the light through the rotunda windows. After
an introductory film narrated by Tom Selleck, a journey through the
halls of the museum begins in the Edward L Gaylord exhibition wing
with bronzes
of Native American figures, past the massive marble white marble cougar,
the Canyon Princess, prepared to pounce and into the Atherton Galleries
of Art of the American West, featuring some of the finest works of
Charles Russell, Frederic Remington and Albert Bierstadt, images of
golden mesas,
expansive plains of droving cattle, camped cowpokes and dancing pioneers
by comp firelight of the trail west. Not only is the gallery a repository
of the cowboy, but the Native American artistic voice is expressed
as well in the neighboring Silberman Gallery of Native American Art.
Guns and Movie Stars
The
museum only begins with art. The weapons and arms of the west are presented
in the setting of an English gentleman’s study, with
one of the finest collections of American firearms which earned their
fame in the American West, gunfighters who hefted iron and railroad range
hunters picking off buffalo from half a mile. The Weitzenhoffer Gallery
of Fine American Firearms, features over one hundred rare examples of
the Colt, Remington. Sharps and Winchester guns from breech loading six
shooters to the Buffalo Rifle. The gallery treats the gun as not only
a tool, but a functional sculpture with developed with a progression
of unique mechanics and decorated as a work of art.
Western Performers Gallery
Our
images of cowboy and the west are mostly defined by the books written
and portrayals of the west, first brought back in the form of the “Dime
Novel”, the heroicized tails of derring-do of the lawman and
the outlaw and the lonely range brought back to the curious east in
printed
pages, then the Wild West Show, stage performances of rope tricks and
horses trodding the boards of opera houses and Broadway, and finally
the Hollywood movie, western matinee serial and television. The Western
Performers Gallery presents a rich image of this heritage, some of
which is ingrained in our experience and some only vaguely familiar.
Memorabilia
of famous entertainment figures from Roy Rogers and Will Rogers to
John Wayne, crowd the display cases, from Buffalo Bill’s Wild
West Show to Gunsmoke, you’ll find costumes, props and
personal items of silent movie heroes like William S Hart and Tom Mix,
singing
cowboys
Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (see Pioneertown
California),
from single items like the signature whip of 50’s matinee idol
Lash Larue and iconic chess piece holster of Paladin, to the
full section devoted to American films’ most
famous star, John Wayne, with a collection of his personal firearms,
spot
the items
of
your
own personal
favorites,
to those you never knew.
Cowboys, Indians and the Frontier West
The Gallery of the American Cowboy explores the history and culture
of the cowboy with stunning priceless collection of saddles and bridles,
boots, hats, western clothes and gear, down to a surprising array of
the barbed wire and branding irons. The Joe Grandee Museum of the Frontier
West presents the legacy of the diverse peoples of the west, history
of the military, mountain men, hunters, trappers and explorers who
discovered
and tamed the wilds, and the native peoples told through the collection
of the western illustrator, Joe Ruiz Grandee, who used the real artifacts
he’d gathered to feature authentic detail in his narrative painting.
Rodeo & Western Town
The
American Rodeo Gallery showcases the history of the glory days of the
rodeo, set in a lifelike recreation of the rodeo arena from
the 1950s,
with the history of the champions, equipment, clothing and memorabilia
of this most American home grown sport. The top hands and cowboy of
the inductees to the Rodeo Hall of Fame can be explored on interactive
computer
stations. Beyond the museum exhibits of items on display, enter the
west itself in Prosperity Junction, where you can walk the street of
a western
cattle town circa 1900, full-sized buildings entirely indoors, in the
dark of dusk, with lights spilling from the life-like shops, western
saloon, one-room schoolhouse, sheriff's office and jail, stable, church
and hotel.
Visiting the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
The museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas
and New Year’s Day. Admission is $12.50 for adults, $9.75 for
seniors (62+) and students, $5.75 for children 4 to 12, under 4 are
free. There
is ample free parking. The Persimmon Hill restaurant offers lunch,
snacks and dining. Museum membership and discounts to special events
are available.
The museum is located off Interstate 44 (Route 66) about 10 minutes
from downtown Oklahoma City. Nearby with a car are the Oklahoma Zoo,
the Science
Center, History Museum, Firefighters Museum, Softball Hall of
Fame and the 45th Infantry Museum. © Bargain
Travel West
Find the best travel and hotel deals in Oklahoma City on TripAdvisor
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National
Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
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