A US Navy Balao-class submarine sitting on dry land north of Muskogee, three blocks from the Arkansas River. Visitors clamber down the conning tower hatch and walk the length of the boat through the torpedo rooms, the control room, the galley, and the cramped crew quarters. The grounds outside hold a memorial wall, a Vietnam-era patrol boat, and a small museum of submarine and naval history. An unexpected, slightly surreal experience for a small Oklahoma town and a worthwhile 90 minutes.
USS Batfish and Muskogee War Memorial Park
A story
The Batfish sank three Japanese submarines in 76 hours during February 1945 — a record for an Allied submarine in World War II. The boat is permanently docked here on a small concrete cradle dug out of the prairie, two miles from any deep water, after a 1972 fundraising campaign to bring her up from the Mississippi as a memorial.