Oklahoma City National Memorial

I’m not even sure how to review the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. It’s the story of the infamous 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a downtown building and the death of 168 people, 19 of whom were children. People just going about their normal workday. Children playing in daycare.

The Museum

I’ll just start by saying I didn’t have a clue what I was walking into. I thought perhaps there was an outdoor memorial park on the site of the bombing. After dropping off some mail at the post office across the street, I figure I’d walk through. Then realizing there was an indoor museum, I decided to check it out on a whim.

Holy cow, you guys, I was devastated by this museum. It’s very visceral and full of put-you-there action. First of all, it’s a very high-tech, tactile experience with lots of screens. There are videos with eye-witness interviews, folks who were there and recorded soon after (or during) the events. There are artifacts pulled from the rubble and donated by survivors, rooms with recorded audio from the explosion so you feel like you are experiencing it in real-time. A whole solemn room is filled with favorite items from each of the victims.

The entire experience is a very well-laid-out timeline of events. From a brief back history on the building itself, the dawning of the day of the bombing, then a minute breakdown of the bombing itself. Following is the aftermath, the damage to downtown, the many days of recovery, and the mounting death toll as the days rolled by. I tell you the truth, I cried a LOT. As a result, I didn’t get very many pictures inside. I was just too emotionally involved.

The entire history ends with the tracking down and arrest of bomber Timothy McVeigh, followed by his trial and conviction. In fact, there are fun touch-screen tables to follow all the evidence they used to track him down and convict him. After I stopped crying, the true-crime fan in me really had fun swooshing around all the data. It’s like being inside the Minority Report.

Outdoor Memorial

Outside, there is a memorial space on the site of the building that was bombed, which you can visit anytime for free. It includes a shallow reflecting pool and “time gates” on either side. The moment of the bombing was at 9:02, so the gate at one end has 9:01 carved on it – the time of innocence. The gate on the other end reads 9:03 – the time when healing begins. Everything in the middle is the moment of the explosion.

There is a field of empty chairs on the side lawn, representing each person who died on each floor. Smaller chairs represent the children. Another children’s area is in front of the museum building, featuring colorful tiles sent to Oklahoma City by children in 1995. Large areas for chalk drawings encourage young ones to process their feelings about their experience.

A large elm tree at the highest point in the field is called the Survivor Tree. It survived the full force of the blast, becoming a symbol for the city that, they too, could survive this ordeal. In a corner of the field is the survivor wall, the only section of the original building still standing. It’s now inscribed with over 600 names of those who survived the blast – many with serious injuries.

Across the street at the corner of St. Joseph’s Catholic church, you’ll find a statue of Christ with his back turned on the horrors of the blast.

To Visit

The Oklahoma City National Monument is a deeply affecting story of home-grown terrorism and the resilience of Americans to band together to help each other, fight evil, honor the dead, and rebuild better. And as I wrote in my post about Myriad Botanical Gardens (located just a few blocks down from the memorial) it seems like Oklahoma City residents rebuilt their city even better with love and pride. It’s a beautiful and welcoming downtown.

To visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial – and I highly recommend that you do – cost is $15 and under. And they’re doing a fantastic job with Covid! Tickets are timed-entry and there is lots of room to spread out. They even give you a little stylus to use on the touch screens that’s yours to keep! I ended up using it at other museums, it’s fantastic.

My Day in OKC

After visiting the museum and memorial, I was pretty shattered emotionally. So I walked down a few blocks to Myriad Botanical Gardens for some beauty and fresh air. (I highly recommend the Crystal Bridge in the gardens, though it’s soon to shut down for a total renovation.) I took a rest in the afternoon and went out for dinner and a walk in nearby Bricktown that evening.

As bookends to my day in Oklahoma City, I ate meals in the Plaza District – dinner the night I arrived and breakfast the morning I left. It’s a fun, hip place to walk around with some really cool murals to check out during the day and nightlife in the evenings.