Shawnee sits in the heart of Oklahoma, about 35 miles east of Oklahoma City, and serves as the seat of Pottawatomie County. The city has a quiet pride in its outsized contributions to American culture — actor Brad Pitt grew up here, and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper called it home. The historic downtown along Main Street has a handful of handsome early-twentieth-century commercial buildings, and the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art on the campus of St. Gregory's University holds a surprisingly good collection that includes an Egyptian mummy.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center is worth a visit for its frank and detailed account of the tribe's forced removal from the Great Lakes region in 1838 and their reconstruction in Oklahoma. The surrounding countryside is classic central Oklahoma — rolling prairie, pecan groves, and wide skies — and the city makes a reasonable stop if you are driving between Oklahoma City and the eastern part of the state.