When I was in Oklahoma City recently, I spent not-enough-time in the National Cowboy & Western Museum, one of the wonderful institutions throughout the West commemorating, memorializing and sometimes romanticizing the cattle and the cowpokes who have worked them under the big blue dome that covers the Western prairies, valleys and canyons. A montage of cowboy and television cowboys provide a "hey, remember that!" pop-culture connection to what is a far more comprehensive display of American West -- Anglo, Hispanic and black cowboys at work; rodeo as a social connector for ranchers on the West's vast open lands and as entertainment; the US Cavalry; the art of the West; excellent children's interpretive sections, and even beautiful gardens. The image below shows the rear of the museum, as seen from the gardens.
As a born-and-bred New Englander, I continue to be captivated by Western art and culture. In addition to the National Cowboy & Western Museum, here are other excellent museums with significant permanent, rotating and visiting exhibitions that celebrate and enlighten about various aspects of the American West:
- Buffalo Bill Historical Center (five museums, including the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum and the Whitney Museum of Western Art), Cody, WY
- Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, CO
- Cheyenne Frontier Days' Old West Museum, Cheyenne
- Colorado History Museum, Denver
- Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa
- The Journey Museum, Rapid City, SD
- Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art, Boulder, CO
- Mormon Museum, LDS Museum of Church History and Art, Salt Lake City
- National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque
- National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY
- ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Colorado Springs
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