J.M. Davis Arms Museum

Discussion in 'Firearms' started by Minuteman, Mar 4, 2010.


  1. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I go to Tulsa Oklahoma several times a year for various Oil industry meetings, conferences etc. A guy I work with told me about a museum in Claremore, just outside of Tulsa. I got a chance to go a couple of weeks ago. Wow!!! The largest private gun collection in the world. Over 20,000 guns!!! I didn't have but an hour and a half to spend there, not nearly enough time. I have to go back. It was awesome.

    Mr. Davis was a local business man and collected arms all of his life. As his collection grew so did his reputation. Soon guns were being donated to his ever expading collection. Soldiers returning from war brought back weapons to donate to it. Howard Hughes tried to buy the collection and Mr. Davis refused. He steadfastly refused to break up any part of his beloved collection. He created a trust and left instuctions and provided for the care and public exhibition of it after his death. He and hs wife are entombed in a room of the museum, surrounded in death as he was in life by his prized possessions.

    This saying is on a plaque on the wall. I bought a photo copy of it. I thought it was very good.

    My Arms Collection

    These are man-made Tools of War or Peace, of Love or Hate, Labeled at will by man, their Creator.

    Tools, ingeniously designed, used by Aggressor or Defender classed again by man, their Maker.

    Blameless, products of metal and wood, shaped by the skill of Master Mechanics, embellished by the hand of an Artist - condemned because of mis-use by man, their Possessor.

    A mighty Protector on the side of Right - A Destroyer on the side of Evil - an eternal Chameleon.

    Look upon them as they are displayed - impotent Curios of a day now past, outliving their Masters.

    Let their purpose and history be forever in the eyes of the beholder; romantic, destroying or preserving; weaving untold tales of daring or cowardice, of chivalry or cunning. But see them as they shall always be - ominous reminders of sudden action - the instruments of the Quick and the Nemesis of the Dead.

    Ray Riling

    If you ever get a chance to go through that part of the country I highly recommend this awesome museum. He had one of a kind guns that you will see nowhere else. Very impressive. And there is so much more than just firearms. Knives and swords, posters, beer stiens and statuary. Mr. Davis certainly fit the description of packrat! And their library is extensive and free to the public also.


    J.M.Davis Museum Menu
     
  2. magicfingers

    magicfingers Monkey+++

    Oh the memories; I used to live a block west and a couple blocks north of the museum...In my free time, when I wasn't busy humpin' and bumpin' for a living, I would spend my saturday afternoons there droolin'..It was walking distance for me..This was back in the early seventies....It's probaly grown a lot since I was there...Seems like everytime I would go, I would see something that I hadn't seen before...
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7