My mom and I had a little road trip on Saturday to Oklahoma City. Originally we planned on a full Oklahoma weekend road trip to see some sites in OKC and then go up to Pawhuska. But the exhibit we wanted to see in OKC leaves on October 23rd, and the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile opening date got pushed to October 31st, so we just went to OKC for the day.
I got my Mom hooked on AMC's television show "Hell on Wheels" before it's 3rd season. It's a western of sorts, but centered around the building of the transcontinental railroad. Like all AMC shows, it's very well done.
The series has finished now, and they have a temporary exhibit at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in OKC. They have several of the character's costumes on display and lots of information about the building of the railroad.
Many of the characters were based on real people. These costumes belonged to the two Railroad men characters in the series...Collins Huntington who founded the Central Pacific Railroad, and Thomas "Doc" Durant with the Union Pacific Railroad.
The lead character of the series was Cullen Bohannan, played by actor, Anson Mount.
This was one of Cullen's costumes.
Another character in the show was Eva. She went from being a prostitute, to owning the whore house. Her costume had lots of beading and embroidery, and was beautiful. Eva had face tattoos that she got from Indians who kidnapped her when she was young, and her character's backstory is based on a real lady named Olive Oatman
I had been to the museum before, but it was approximately 30 years ago. There is lots to see there.
President Lincoln statue...
"The End of the Trail" statue
There is a neat western town called Prosperity Junction...
It includes a train station, blacksmith, lawyer, doctor, marshals, saloon, school, church, hotel... Really everything an old western town would have had.
This Indian headdress is part of the permanent display...
The rest of these were on loan from other museums for another temporary exhibit of Warbonnets...
This one was stunning.
I assume these eagle feathers were dyed, but it didn't really give us much information.
There are lots of historic clothing and jewelry items on permanent display there. These gloves from the 1800's were my favorite. That embroidery!
How crazy is this get-up? It was a bride's wedding outfit! The groom would definitely see you coming.
After we left the museum, we went to lunch at a great place called Cheever's. Then we went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
I highly recommend it. It's so emotional. You could take pics inside, but I was too teary the whole time to take any. The museum was so well designed...it was designed by the same people who designed the National Holocaust Museum in D.C.
I took some pics of the outside of the memorial...
The Gates of Time. 9:01 a.m.
The reflecting pool representing 9:02 a.m. when the bomb exploded...
The other side has a gate marking 9:03 a.m.
There are 168 empty chairs for each victim of the bombing...
There are 19 smaller chairs for the children who were killed.
I'd recommend visiting if you get a chance.
After leaving the memorial, we went to Bricktown to Pinkitzel. If you visiting OKC, it's a must. They have cupcakes, macarons, candy, gifts, etc. It's all hot pink, white, and black, and so adorable! We got two cupcakes to go and hit the road back to Texas.
If you follow me on social media, you know I posted a pic on Instagram and Twitter yesterday.
And Y'ALL! Anson Mount replied!
Mom and I both love him, so we got a big kick out of this!
Comments