No visit to Oklahoma City is complete without paying respects at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. This is the site of the horrific attack on April 19, 1995 that left 168 people dead and many more injured. TripAdvisor rates the museum as the #1 top thing to do in Oklahoma, and after visiting, I see why. The museum is small, but very well done. It is impactful and honors those lost, the survivors, and the heroes of that horrific day. Here are my top tips for visiting the Oklahoma City Memorial & Museum.
Read More: How to Spend One Day in Oklahoma City, OK
1) Parking
Parking for the museum isn’t located on site, but only a block away here (on the corner of N Harvey Ave and NW 6th St). When you arrive, grab a ticket from the machine and park in any spot. The parking area is very small and can only accommodate a couple dozen cars. If that happens, there is plenty of street parking within a few block radius of the museum. Parking is free with museum admission, so when you purchase your ticket, show them your parking ticket and they will give you a separate ticket to use for validation. Make sure you hold onto these, as you’ll need to scan both upon exiting the parking garage!
2) Student Discount
If you’re a student, make sure you bring your student ID! When you walk up to the ticket counter, show them your ID to save a few dollars on admission. At time of writing, an adult ticket is $18 and a student ticket is $15. It’s not a huge savings, but a savings nonetheless!
3) Plan to Spend 1-2 Hours
The museum itself isn’t huge. When you enter, you will be directed up to the 2nd floor to the start of the exhibits. After you cover the second floor, you’ll proceed down to the first floor for more exhibits before it leads you to the exit. You should plan to spend anywhere from 1-2 hours in the museum alone. It took me about an hour and a half to go through the entire thing, moving at a moderate pace (I definitely don’t read every sign, but I do like to at least see everything). There are a few short films to sit and watch and some interactive exhibits to take in. After, don’t forget to check out the outside grounds (but more on that below!).
4) Discretion is Advised
Obviously, this is the location of great loss and some of the content in the museum is heavy. There were a couple times during the museum where I felt uncomfortable an overwhelmed with emotions. Most notably, toward the beginning of the museum, you go into a faux courtroom to listen to the recordings of the trial that was taking place that morning. The doors close, there are no windows, and you’re completely immersed in the room. Over the speakers you hear the first couple minutes of normal court proceedings. Then, you hear the explosion and chaos happen and it was really overwhelming. You hear people screaming, alarms going off, and experience the raw moments immediately following the explosion. It was heavy, and honestly too much for me.
Thankfully that was the only exhibit in the museum that you are forced to experience. The rest of the museum is taken at your own pace, so if something makes you uncomfortable, you can move on. I found myself getting emotional later on in the museum looking at signs the survivors made while trapped in the rubble. “We desperately need a miracle” read one, and it moved me to tears immediately. I couldn’t imagine the feeling of desperation the survivors felt in those hours following the attack while they were trapped inside waiting for help. Truly chilling.
5) Don’t Skip the Outdoor Areas
Aside from the museum, the outside grounds are also not to be missed! These areas are free to access and don’t require museum admission to visit. The grounds are beautifully done. Most impactful is a memorial for each person who lost their lives (symbolized by a chair in the Field of Empty Chairs). There is also a shallow reflection pool surrounded by two monuments indicating the minute before the attack, 9:01 am (when life was normal), and the minute right after the attack, 9:03 am (when the world would never be the same). The Fence and Survivor Tree are two more sites that hold significant importance and are not to be missed.
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