National Cowgirl Museum: You go West, girl
Discover the unsung heroine of the Wild West at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. It’s the only museum in the world dedicated to honoring the women who packed a punch and rustled up progress in the heart of the American West.
Part of Fort Worth's Cultural District, the museum set up its homestead in 2002, near the celebrated Will Rogers Memorial Center.
The museum focuses on the women who helped settle the frontier and those who continue to live their lives with the grit and determination of the American cowgirl. It includes interactive exhibit galleries, a traveling exhibit gallery, three theaters and an expanded research library.
It opened in 1975 in the basement of the Deaf Smith County Library in Hereford, Texas, and moved to Fort Worth in 1994 to build a new permanent home.The museum's archives house more than 2,000 artifacts and information about more than 450 remarkable women. The 196 National Cowgirl Hall of Fame honorees include pioneers, artists, writers, entertainers, humanitarians, business-women, educators, ranchers and rodeo cowgirls.
Women honored include Sacajawea, principal guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition; painter Georgia O'Keeffe; potter Maria Martinez; writer Laura Ingalls Wilder; sharpshooter Annie Oakley; Enid Justin, who created the multi-million dollar Nocona Boot Company; Hollywood icon Dale Evans and U. S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
With items for sale ranging from kitschy cowgirl lunch boxes to fine leather handbags and accessories, the museum general store is a great place to grab a souvenir or a gift for an eclectic friend.
Admission prices are $8 for adults and $7 for children aged 3-12 and seniors who are 60 or older. Little buckaroos, 2 years and younger, get in free with a parent’s paid admission. For group rates, call ahead at least two weeks before the visit.
While the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is building its new facility, many of their hands-on exhibits are temporarily on display on the lower level of the National Cowgirl Museum. It’s like getting into two museums for the price of one.
If you're planning a visit, download this $1 coupon good for up to four admissions. Additional information is posted on the museum’s web site.
Posted by Jenn Emerson
