NATIONAL COW BOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM

This museum, created in 1955, evokes the life of cowboys. Several exhibition rooms, some of them temporary (cowboy art, sombreros and hats, Northwest Coast art...), and a full-scale reproduction of a small Western town are the main part of the visit. Beautiful statues stand in various parts of the museum and in the surrounding green spaces.

Inside the main building, you'll see many beautifully designed accessories (saddles, mores, spurs, etc.), weapons, cowboy and soldier clothing, and the various types of barbed wire that were gradually used to fence off the vast prairies. One room is dedicated to the world of the western and the 7th art, with several extracts of great classics, and another to the history of the rodeo which, you will see, also honors the women. Finally, the American Indians of the heroic times are also presented, with their way of life, their customs. The Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center (open by appointment) is the museum's archive and bookstore. In the lobby, note the sculpture by James Earle Fraser (1876-2953) that evokes theEnd of the Trail of Tears. The End of the Trail of Tears is the name given to the forced removal of the Cherokee (among other nations) by the U.S. government between 1838 and 1839, from east of the Mississippi to present-day Oklahoma. Cafeteria-Grill and store.