Monday, July 14, 2014

Have You Ever. . .

. . . visited the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, OK?  Until yesterday, I had not, even though driving past it many times per week.  I just couldn't get excited about the world's largest gun collection.  Yesterday, the quarterly meeting of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association was held at the museum, and since I'm an officer I  went.   And I was impressed!   If  you like guns, you could stay there for most of  your life.  If you're not so much into pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc., there are a good many historical displays that non-gun fanciers can see and from which they can learn a bit about the history of Claremore and the surrounding area. Among many other items, featured in displays are the weapons of famous outlaws from the Wild West, railroad history, a clock collection, a beer stein collection, and of course much is made of Claremore's most famous citizen, Will Rogers. Mr. Davis was a major league collector/hoarder.  Admission is free.   Now that we've visited the museum,  we can feel confident in recommending the J.M. Davis Museum as an interesting stop for Route 66 visitors headed west..

Mr. Davis and his wife are buried right there in the museum.


And here are the officers of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association.  One of them forgot to wear her blue shirt.  Who could that be??

3 comments:

Ron McCoy said...

We know that prisoners were often hanged in public executions in town squares. One eerie exhibit in the museum is a collection of commonly-used long black hoods they placed over the heads of the prisoners before pulling the lever. The noose was put on after the hood so that the material of the hood reduced rope burn.

Laurel said...

Yes, those black hoods certainly made an eerie exhibit, particularly along side all those handcuffs and leg irons.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us know about the place, and the photos. It's another place I'll have to add to the "stop and see" list.

DynoDave