Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum: Oklahoma City, OK

Hey friend! Welcome back to another post! Today, we’re talking about the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum and Memorial. There are pieces in the museum collection from across the United States, across Oklahoma, and even a piece from the London Fire Brigade. Let’s go look around!

*All photos used in this post were taken inside and outside at the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum in Oklahoma City.

Museum History

The Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum was founded in 1967 in OKC with a groundbreaking ceremony taking place on April 6th. The building was completed in 1969 and opened to the public on June 1st. The Oklahoma State Firefighters Association (OSFA), Oklahoma Fire Chiefs Association (OCFA), and the Oklahoma Retired Firefighters Association (ORFA) also have offices in the building.

The museum is owned and operated by firefighters of the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association which was founded in 1894. A portion of membership dues help support the museum.

Exhibits

There were several really cool exhibits and artifacts in this museum. I have included a few photos of some of the exhibits. Please make sure to visit the museum or their website for more information.

Alfred P. Murrah Bombing – Rescue Memorial

On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m. a bomb exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Many firefighters rushed to the scene to help the injured amongst the chaos. There were two memorials made to honor the firefighters, one is located at the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum and the other is in Washington, D.C. at the International Association of Firefighters office.

I hope to visit the OKC Memorial Museum in Oklahoma City in the future.

Old Fire Station

There is a miniature firehouse built inside the museum which has an early 20th century John Gamewell Alarm System from Enid, Oklahoma. Scroll through the photos below to get a closer look!

Miniature Fire Truck Collection & The Last Alarm Mural

The collection of miniature firetrucks lined one of the walls in the museum and they were super cool to look at!

If you look above the cases in photo 5 you will notice a large mural – this is called The Last Alarm. Lynn Campbell painted the mural while visitors at the museum watched. The mural is 59 feet long and 8 feet tall with each firetruck representing a real truck used by a town.

Fire Pole & Horse Drawn Wagon

Firefighter Gear

There was a wall with firefighting bunker coats from World War II to the present-day. It was really neat to see how the gear changed over time. Scroll through the gallery to read more about each specific set of gear provided by the Morning Pride Manufacturing Co.

Ben Franklin Collection & Early Firefighting Equipment

First Fire Station in Indian Territory

Fort Supply Depot was the location of the first fire station in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). The log cabin structure was built in 1869 on the plains. The soldiers wanted a structure to protect all of the fire equipment from the elements. It also gave a sense of law and order to the area.

A little over a century later, the Fort Supply Fire Department donated the log cabin to the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association. The museum staff had to move it from Fort Supply to OKC which is roughly a 3 hour trip covering 160-185 miles depending on your route. 16 people from OKC took a truck and trailer to pick up the log cabin from Fort Supply. The log cabin survived the trip thanks to the diligence of the museum staff. Once the log cabin arrived in OKC the museum staff realized that it wouldn’t fit through the door… So it was carefully broken into pieces and then put back together once all the pieces inside the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum!

Largest Firefighter Patch Collection in the World!

The Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum has the largest collection of firefighter patches in the world. The patches in the Ben Dancy/Arvin Fennell Memorial Patch Collection come from all over the world – if you zoom in on the photos you can read where the patches are from! The collection wraps around three walls of the museum and the photos don’t do it justice… There are over 7,000 patches in this collection!

In the 1960s, Ben Dancy was the Chief of the Oklahoma City Fire Department. He began putting patches on the wall in June 1969 when the museum opened and continued to do so until he passed away in 1982. Arvin Fennell carried on the patch legacy in Chief Dancy’s honor. Fennell was a retired Assistant Fire Chief from Midwest City. He is responsible for the display cases currently in the museum. Previously, the patch collection had been mounted in a catalogue, but Fennell made cases where you could see all the patches at once. Chief Fennell continued working on the patch collection until he passed in 2015.

Fire Trucks

The museum has over a dozen restored firetrucks inside that you can walk around and look at. There are pieces of equipment from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries in the collection. Scroll through the gallery to view various fire trucks from different eras. We were told that many of the fire trucks still run, which is pretty cool if you ask me!

My Favorite Piece in the Collection

My favorite piece in this museum was probably this hand drawn chemical cart from 1890. A lot of the research I do takes place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so it was cool to see what kind of firefighting equipment they had at the time!

Firefighter’s Memorial

The Memorial is on the Western side of the property. It honors the brave men and women firefighters who have protected and served Oklahoma. The sculpture is titled, Just Another Day and was created by Shahla Rahimi Reynolds (OKC).

The Wall of Valor honors the firefighters who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Other firefighters who have served for over 20 years or retired through disability are also recognized in the memorial.

You can search names on the Memorial Wall on this web page if you scroll down the page – LINK HERE.

Concluding Thoughts

I enjoyed visiting the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum again. I visited once when I was a kid and all I remembered about the museum were the big firetrucks on the inside of the building. So, it was cool to go back and walk around the inside of the museum again and appreciate more of the collection. I learned a lot and hope you’ll go check this place out!

TRAVEL TIP: This museum is located right by the Oklahoma City Zoo, Science Museum Oklahoma, the National Softball Hall of Fame, American Pigeon Museum, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. So, if you’re traveling from out of town, make sure to visit some of these other cool places that are close by!

Happy Traveling! I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂