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Clinton’s Western Trails Museum didn’t attract much traffic to its displays. Opened in 1968, the museum sought to tell the story of the Chisholm Trail. The name, like its mission, competed with other Oklahoma museums seeking to tell their stories of prairie history. Or, as Pat Smith says, “too many with the same ol’ country history.”
As a tourism traffic generator, Western Plains Museum ranked at the bottom. Something needed to be done to help both the Museum and its host city. Turns out, the Museum’s location on the famous Route 66 was a potential game changer.
Pat Smith is Director of Oklahoma’s Route 66 Museum, one of many Route 66 tributes on the famous highway which extended from Chicago to Santa Monica, California.
In 1991, Western Trails Museum, like the Pioneer Woman Museum, was part of the 8-museum transfer from Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation to the Oklahoma Historical Society. In 1993, the shift from Western Trails to Route 66 began.
“Route 66 is the most famous road in the world. This museum tells the complete story of the road’s history.”
To complete the name change required a change in mission.
She said a “pitchforks and torches” attitude was exhibited when OHS first mentioned the intent to rename, and re-state the Western Trails Museum to the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum.
“Sometimes, you know how it is — that people so used to the name are afraid of what would happen to all that history. Now, they see what a wonderful calling card the (renamed) museum is for Clinton.”
Funding for the change came from the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 as well as state and private funding. “A town of 10,000 raised $200,000 which, in today’s terms, is equal to $400,000,” Smith says. “Artifacts in (this) museum now have all been donated to the museum. Local people gave Route 66 items. We have some wonderful artifacts.”
Oklahoma’s Route 66 Museum is now among Oklahoma Historical Society’s top-performing museums with a gift shop generating record-setting tourism dollars. When it opened in 1995, it inspired other Oklahoma communities along Route 66 to join in the museum project by constructing satellite exhibits in their own towns. Each of these exhibits tells the local story of Route 66 and directs visitors to the next exhibit.
“Visitors tell us we have the widest selection of Route 66 merchandise of any Route 66 museums,” she said. “We’re one of the few museums that’s not in the red,” Smith explains. “Admissions and gift shop (sales) provide funding for operations, overhead, even staff salary.”
Smith draws from this experience as she encourages, “Don’t live in fear because change is great. The name change has brought so much more to Clinton, so much more overall dollars, more people coming through Clinton.”
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