Tourist attraction ideas for visitors to oklahoma city

Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest

Oklahoma City is remembered in most peoples minds for the bombing of the federal building on April 19, 1995. While the city has rebuilt that area of downtown into a beautiful memorial and museum dedicated to the scores of people who lost their lives that day, there is a lot more to this city that straddles southern and western traditions.

One place not to be missed in this metropolis of around a million citizens is Bricktown, the renovated historic commercial district that is now home to a AAA baseball team, a man-made canal complete with water taxi boat rides and numerous shops and fine restaurants. A wonderful place for an afternoon stroll or an evening at the ballpark, Bricktown offers entertainment for families and couples. The old industrial buildings (made of red brick) have largely been preserved, making a walk around the block a history lesson as you imagine what life was like there many years ago.

Oklahoma City is proud of its western heritage, as evidenced by the presence of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in the city. Home to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the galleries feature permanent and traveling exhibits on western history, art, native people and western traditions. Highlights of the museum include two wonderful pieces by James Earle Taylor, a statue of Abraham Lincoln commissioned by the Lincoln Association of Jersey City, New Jersey, and End of the Trail, a haunting and well-known figure of a dejected Indian on his horse.

Oklahoma City also has an art museum, which boasts the largest and most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world. (Dale Chihuly makes blown-glass sculpture pieces that are made into towers, and the museum also has a stunning Waterford crystal blown-glass chandelier he made.) The museum contains 15 galleries crossing the world and history and also features traveling exhibits. This new museum, nearly 100 years in the making, is full of spirit.

If youd rather look at animals than art, youll want to stop at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Much like any other zoo, the Oklahoma City Zoo features a variety of cats, big and small, pachyderms, primates, birds and more. The zoo is also accredited as a botanical garden and has the best caf-style restaurant youll probably ever find at a zoo. Theres also an amphitheater, where concerts are performed in the summer.

And then theres the crown jewel of Oklahoma City attractions: Myriad Botanical Gardens and the Crystal Bridge Conservatory. The gardens boast 17 acres and more than 1,000 plant species, representing all continents except Antarctica. There is a rainforest zone and a dry tropical zone, showing a wide range of plants from palms to gingers, more than 1,200 varieties of orchids and more than 100 begonias. The structure itself, the Crystal Bridge, is a massive circular structure like a drinking glass tipped on its side. Its not at all what youd expect to find in the middle of the city.

Depending on when you visit, you may be able to catch a basketball game or a concert at the Ford Center, see an opera or a concert at the Civic Center, or take in horse race at Remmington Park. There are numerous theaters, a ballet company, a choral society, philharmonic, opry and opera companies.

Of course Oklahoma City is also a state capital, and the governors mansion and the capitol are both open for tours. Oklahoma Citys state capitol grounds are the only such grounds in the United States with a working oil well on the premises. Near the capitol you will also find the state Museum of History, which offers a look at the state and its inhabitants from prehistoric times to the present day. The collection includes a historic teepee, a wagon used in land runs, antique quilts and more.

And for a real taste of the west you can visit the Oklahoma City stockyards, the largest feeder/cattle market in the world. Cowtown offers kitschy shops, western clothes and jewelry purveyors and a 24-hour-a-day beef restaurant. Visitors are sometimes allowed to watch auctions as well.

For something a little different (if Cowtown wasnt different enough) be sure to check out the World Organization of China Painters Museum (with a large collection of hand-painted china pieces) or the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (Olympian Shannon Miller is from Oklahoma).

If youre in the city during the summer, the farmers market is not to be missed. If your trip is in early June, you must stop at the Red Earth festival, the worlds largest Native American arts and cultural exposition. More than 2,000 people from 100 tribes share their art, music and dance during this three-day festival held at the convention center. And if you have kids to entertain, check out Frontier City theme park, which features more than 75 rides around the theme of an Old West town.

Finally, there is the Oklahoma City National Memorial, built on the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The memorial sits on a three-acre site featuring the gates of time (one showing the time, 9:01, when the bomb exploded, the other showing 9:03 and representing the changing of countless lives) and 168 chairs, each with the name of a victim carved on it. A reflecting pool and survivor tree round out the outdoor memorial site.

Also on the memorial grounds is the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center, a 24,000 square-foot museum taking visitors through the history of the museum and the citys reaction to the bombing and its aftermath. The story is told through survivors stories as well as those of rescuers, the media and family members of victims. Pictures and keepsakes of each victim are displayed, as well as wreckage from the bomb site and other memorabilia. The site is a beautiful place of hope despite the destruction that was wrought there.

There is much more to Oklahoma City than what the world often remembers. It is a city rich in history, native and western culture and entertainment. There is much to see for families, art lovers and history buffs.