Blacksmith Shop grand opening, Cherokee Strip Museum

The Cherokee Strip will celebrate the grand opening of the new blacksmith shop and the grand reopening of the recently renovated museum on Friday, September 7, from 1 to 6 pm. Museum admission is free on this date, we will have live blacksmith demonstrations and a visit from featured photographer Teri Garvie-James.

The museum complex sits on five acres and consists of five buildings: the museum, a blacksmith shop, a homestead-style house, a large implement building, and an original one-room schoolhouse. The exhibits are designed to portray life from the opening of the Cherokee Strip via the land run of 1893 to the 1930s. The renovated museum building boasts all new exhibit cases, a new gallery where local and regional artists will display their work, a large gift shop, and a new farmyard hands-on exhibit for children.

The new blacksmith shop consists of a 24’ x 30’ display area with restrooms and a 36’ x 30’ demonstration area. The implement building contains many farming implements and tools that would have been in use during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Other outdoor exhibits include a jail cell, antique threshing machine, antique sorghum mill, and a “flying jenny” merry-go-round for kids.

During the school year, the Rose Hill School conducts “A Day at Rose Hill School” program for third- and fourth-grade students from across Oklahoma. The schoolmarm is attired in period clothing and the students are encouraged to do so as well. Students do actual schoolwork, much as it was done in 1910. The students are escorted from the museum across the “Time Bridge” to the schoolhouse in the year 1910. In 2018 the Cherokee Strip Museum celebrated the 30th anniversary of conducting classes at Rose Hill School.

The museum complex is located approximately a quarter mile east of I-35 from exit 186 toward Perry. For more information, please visit www.cherokee-strip-museum.org or like us on Facebook.