No Man’s Land Historical Museum in Goodwell, Oklahoma

How can one not walk into a building with No Man’s Land Historical Museum carved in stone above the door?  And when you enter, you will enter a kind of time capsule, with its own rhythms, expressed with care.  Founded in the 1930’s, this is not a modern high tech historical museum with digital recreations.  The museum was an outgrowth of the Agricultural College that became Oklahoma Panhandle State University and it features objects and images that tell the compelling local story, mostly from the perspective of the settler–but other visions come through.

There is a two-headed calf, a horse drawn hearse and other wagons, natural history artifacts, shop and farming tools, and objects key to the history of Oklahoma, especially this part of it.  But there are other treasures as well, 1907 tax rolls, complete sets of periodicals, plat maps–so this is a repository of very specific knowledge.

But wander through this museum and stumble on the accounts of the dust bowl and what that meant and how it was experienced and it is hard not to be moved by the difficulty of this life–even now not exactly with the highest population density in the state.