Claremore

Route 66 Oklahoma city best known for Will Rogers and two unusually absorbing history museums.

Located on historic Route 66 in Rogers County, Claremore is a small Oklahoma city of nearly 16,000 people best known as the home of Will Rogers, the Cherokee-born cowboy, humorist, and film star who became one of the most popular figures in 1930s America.

The Will Rogers Memorial Museum sits on twenty acres Rogers himself purchased, planning to retire there. The collection covers his vaudeville career, his newspaper columns, and the plane crash that killed him in 1935. It is a genuinely interesting stop even if you arrive knowing nothing about the man.

The J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum holds one of the largest private firearms collections in the world — over 12,000 firearms plus swords, steins, and outlaw memorabilia. Claremore's annual Chili and Bluegrass Festival draws crowds in the autumn, and the town's Route 66 heritage — including the preserved Claremore Auto Dealership, a 1936 Streamline Moderne landmark — makes it a natural stop on a cross-country drive.

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Things to Do

Claremore's two main draws are both on Will Rogers Boulevard, which follows the original Route 66 alignment through town. The Will Rogers Memorial Museum on the hill northwest of downtown is the more significant of the two, a genuinely good small museum that covers a genuinely interesting man. The J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum is one of the largest privately assembled gun collections in the world — a niche draw but a substantial one.

For Route 66 atmosphere, the Claremore Auto Dealership on Will Rogers Boulevard is a preserved 1930s Streamline Moderne building that is both a historic landmark and still in use as a car dealership. The old downtown on Will Rogers Boulevard has several period-appropriate buildings and the low-key buzz of a county seat town that knows its history without overdoing the presentation.

Will Rogers himself was born not in Claremore but at the Dog Iron Ranch near Oologah, a few miles north — the birthplace is preserved and visitable for anyone wanting to complete the Will Rogers trail.