Western Museums We Love
Our top 10 Western museums of 2008.
Categories: Featured Travel Stories , History , Photo Gallery
By: Johnny D. Boggs 04/01/2008
Overheard at a screening of the 1930 movie Billy the Kid, starring Johnny Mack Brown, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last year: Old guy No. 1: “Have you seen the exhibit yet?” Old guy No. 2. “No, but I’m going to. You?” Old guy No. 1: “Yeah. It’s about 25 percent the real stuff and 75 percent Billy crap.”
Well, you can’t please everyone. Pop Culture criticism aside, 2007 proved to be a great year for Western history museums. Billy rode again (Pop Culture, by the way, resonates with plenty of museum-goers and can help spur interest in the real West), but he had company. Oklahoma and Gene Autry turned 100, Jesse James had a fine showing and you just couldn’t escape Western style, from bolos—uh, bolas—to beavers.
Our Top 10 Museums of the Year:
10. Oklahoma Historical Center (Oklahoma City, OK): Often overshadowed in the capital city by the magnificent National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the sobering Oklahoma City Memorial, the Oklahoma Historical Center is by no means second-rate. If you wanted to celebrate the state’s centennial in 2007, there was no place better to do it.
The 100th birthday party has passed, but this 215,000-square-foot learning center, on 18 acres, is always a museum to check out; it covers the state’s geology, culture and heritage—and a whole lot more.
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