J.M. Davis Museum Reopens March 13th

After nearly five months of lighting renovations, the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore is reopening on Monday, March 13th, 2023. The grand-reopening runs from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with the first 250 visitors getting a pair of free sunglasses. Why sunglasses, you might ask? Well, the future is looking bright at this long-time Route 66 attraction.

The museum has overhauled the lighting throughout their facility from fluorescent bulbs to new, efficient LED lighting. In addition to cutting the cost of the monthly electric bill, this will also prevent damage from UV rays and heat generated from the older installations inside their many display cases.

The “World’s Largest Privately Owned Gun Collection” is presented alongside other artifacts collected by J.M. Davis over his life, which includes 1,200 German beer steins, vintage music boxes, Native American artifacts, swords, World War I posters, and more. When Route 66 was established in 1926, Davis had a small collection on display at the Mason Hotel. The collection was put in a trust and given to the State of Oklahoma in 1965 and the present 40,000 square foot museum was built a few years later.

Davis was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame in 2014. The museum today sits between two alignments of Historic Route 66 in downtown Claremore: the original 1926 alignment and the “modern” 1956 route. The museum is normally open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For more information, contact the museum directly.