We recently visited the little town of Henryetta, and made a stop at their Territorial Museum. We’d been to Henryetta before – it’s a halfway point to our relatives’ home – but I didn’t know they had anything more than an impressive Troy Aikman display at the local McDonald’s.
From the outside, the Territorial Museum is absolutely adorable. it’s in a old schoolhouse, and looks so small its hard to imagine there’s much museum inside. But the historical society has definitely figured out how to put a lot in a little.
I’m going to wager the Territorial Museum is not ADA compliant, which is a shame. For those lucky enough to be able to enter, there’s a lot to see. A sweet older lady was running the museum when we arrived, and she showed us everything in the impressive display. The museum is filled from floor to ceiling with artifacts from the early days of Henryetta. There’s also displays for Aikman and for Jim Shoulders, sixteen-time world champion cowboy and inventor of the mechanical bull.
There’s so much in the museum, in fact, that it’s a little much for small children to take in, and I started to worry they were going to get into trouble while other people in our group inspected things at their leisure. Nothing is really protected from small people, and it’s up to parents to pull little hands away from the collection.
So we looked through, had our fill of the museum, and then went outside while everyone else kept looking and talking to the volunteer curator. Behind the museum, we found a playground! Hooray!
What luck! The museum appears to be part of an entire block that includes city offices and a park. The big play structure kept my small people entertained and worked off some energy after sitting in the car. When we got done with this, we moved on to the gazebo (you can see it at the right in the first photo) and played there. My son found a dime. Good times were had by all.
This is a great museum and a nice stop if you’re tooling down the interstate and need something to break up the monotony. There’s no charge, but there is a donation jar. Everyone can enjoy seeing the displays, and when the kids grow weary, they can run outside and not bother those who want to look a little more. I’d only caution about very little people – you wouldn’t want something to get broken, so you might want to hang on to them inside. I think you could maneuver an umbrella stroller, but anything bigger wouldn’t work inside.
Enjoy it!
