Page 459 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

OKLAHOM A  457

Federal Building bombing
(see p434) with the dignified
Oklahoma City National
Memorial. The 3.3-acre (1.3-ha)
downtown memorial includes a
museum, reflecting pool, and the
elm tree that survived the blast
and symbolizes strength.
E Oklahama History Center
2401 N Laird Ave. Tel (405) 522-0765.
Open 10am–5pm Mon–Sat.
Closed Jan 1, Thanksgiving, Dec 25.
Earth lodges in the Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah 7 ∑ okhistorycenter.org
E National Cowboy and
the “Trail of Tears” from North the state capital in 1910 and Western Heritage Museum
Carolina to Oklahoma in the saw its first oil strike in 1928. 1700 NE 63rd St. Tel (405) 478-2250.
1830s (see p434). This tragic Today, there are more than Open 10am–5pm daily. Closed Jan 1,
event is also dramatized every 2,000 still-active oil wells, Thanksgiving, Dec 25. & 7
year in June. including one on the grounds ∑ nationalcowboymuseum.org
of the Oklahoma State Capitol,
P Cherokee Heritage Center within the city limits.
21192 S Keeler Dr, 3 miles (5 km) S of The Oklahoma History Center
Tahlequah. Tel (888) 999-6007. Open chronicles the state’s intimate
9am–5pm Mon–Sat. Closed pub hols. relationship with oil, as well as its
& 7 ∑ cherokeeheritage.org pre-settlement history. The
National Cowboy and Western
Heritage Museum contains one
of the country’s most compre-
/ Oklahoma City hensive collec tions of Western-
related art. Among its exhibits are
* 599,000. ~ @ n 123 Park Ave,
(800) 225-5652. ∑ visitokc.com works by such artists as Charles
Russell and Albert Bierstadt. It
Oklahoma City was built and also features a giant statue of the
founded in a single day, April 22, famed Wild West figure Buffalo
1889, as part of the first Bill and a collection of Western
Oklahoma Territory land rush. actor John Wayne memor abilia.
Over 10,000 land claims were On a more somber note, the city
filed on that day, creating a city has paid homage to the 168 The reflecting pool at the Oklahoma City
out of thin air. The city became people killed in the tragic 1995 National Memorial

Old Route 66: The Historic “Mother Road”
Route 66 has been immortalized as the “mother road” traveled by the migrant Oklahoma family in author
John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath as they fled the drought-stricken Dust Bowl on the way to
California. This historic highway, charted in 1926, was the first to link Chicago
to Los Angeles. Old Route 66 heads southwest from the state’s northeastern
corner to its western border with Texas, meandering along the original two-
lane alignment much of the way, frequently within sight of the modern
interstates, I-44 and I-40, that parallel its original route. West of Oklahoma
City, the route runs alongside I-40, with several sections of old road veering
off the Interstate. The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton sits across
from the Trade Winds Inn where Elvis Presley slept on four separate
occasions. The museum has one of the country’s best Route 66 collections.
The National Route 66 Museum in Elk City (30 miles/48 km west of
Clinton) sports a smaller but equally engaging array of exhibits, including a
pickup truck modeled after the one used in director John Ford’s 1940 film
adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. Other sights along the route include the
Totem Pole Park (about 4 miles/6 km east of Foyil) and the Will Rogers
Memorial Museum at Claremore (27 miles/43 km east of Tulsa). Oklahoma’s
favorite son, humorist Will Rogers, was born in a log cabin in nearby Oologah.
The museum relates the life story of this colorful actor and newspaper
Totem Pole Park columnist, and screens several of his films.

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