The J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, will open a temporary railroad history exhibit the same day Union Pacific’s historic Big Boy locomotive stops in the city on Oct. 14.
According to the Claremore Progress newspaper, the Claremore museum will host “American Treasures: The Railroad Museum of Oklahoma,” displaying about 150 artifacts from the railroad museum based in Enid, Oklahoma, starting at 10 a.m. on Oct. 14.
The Oklahoma Railway Museum exhibit will remain at the gun museum through Jan. 11.
The Big Boy No. 4014 is set to arrive in Claremore at the Florence Avenue crossing at 1:15 p.m. that day. You’d better not be late, though. The locomotive will depart about 30 minutes later.
More from the newspaper:
Randy Ramer, director of the gun museum, said it’s no accident the two events are scheduled the same day.
“It’s about encouraging people from Enid to come here, and encouraging people from Claremore to go to Enid to see the larger collection,” Ramer said. “That’s always a good thing.”
Ramer said the Enid museum has over a million artifacts in its collection, many gathered by founder Frank “Watermelon” Campbell, a brakeman and conductor in the Enid area who died in 2021 at age 99.
Ramer said he recently traveled to Enid to pick out objects from the collection to display in Claremore. He said he worked with Mike Marshall, acting director of the Enid museum, to reflect the entire collection with a small sample.
The museum will present the collection with a video of Campbell, whom Ramer said was the “heart and soul” of the Enid museum.
Marshall said other items will include vintage railroad signs, lanterns, model trains, china from dining cars — “an awful lot of stuff.”
Ramer also said he wants to renovate much of the Davis Museum before Route 66’s centennial in 2026.
Davis, the museum’s late founder, once owned the long-gone Mason Hotel along Route 66 in Claremore. He eventually acquired more than 13,000 firearms that make up the collection.
The museum, marking its 55th year, also contains about 1,200 beer steins, 19th-century music boxes, Native American artifacts, swords, knives, antiques, boot jacks, cattle brands, horns and trophy heads.
The Big Boy is an American Locomotive Company made during the early 1940s that was restored by Union Pacific about 10 years ago. It remains the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world.
(Image of the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 by Shiva Shenoy via Flickr)