Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library

The Oklahoma Territorial Museum occupies part of the Carnegie Library building in the historic downtown, covering the history of Oklahoma Territory from the 1889 Land Run through statehood in 1907. The Land Run — when some 50,000 settlers lined up on the border of unassigned lands and raced to stake claims — is explained in detail, along with the political upheavals of the territorial years and the controversy around moving the capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.

The Carnegie Library itself (1902) is one of the finest surviving Carnegie buildings in the region, in polished red brick with a columned entrance. The frontier medicine exhibits and displays on Native American land history provide useful context for anyone exploring central Oklahoma. The Frontier Drugstore Museum nearby runs a complementary apothecary history exhibit.

things to do museum
A story
Among the more unusual exhibits is the story of Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw killed in 1911 whose mummified body was displayed in a travelling carnival for over 60 years — including stints as a "haunted house dummy" — before being identified by investigators from the TV show "The Six Million Dollar Man" in 1976 when a prop fell apart on set and revealed human bones. McCurdy was finally buried in Guthrie's Boot Hill Cemetery.