Will Rogers once said of Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve that “It’s the most unique place in this country” and we couldn’t agree more.
The Woolaroc name is derived from three words – the woods, lakes and rocks that make up the beautiful Oklahoma Osage Hills where Woolaroc is located. This 3,700 acre ranch was established by oil tycoon Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum Company.
The petroleum company was founded in 1917 and in the early days of his career Frank drilled many wells on Osage Indian lands in Oklahoma.
Tangential note (as I am not implying that Frank Phillips was in any way nefarious): I had never heard of the Osage Indians, their resulting wealth from oil discovered on their lands, nor any of the people who took advantage of them to obtain that oil. Doug and I subsequently listened to “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann which is an excellent historical account.
Frank Phillips was not only an exceptional businessman, but he was a philanthropist who gave generously to youth education and training over the years, including huge donations to Boy Scouts of America. Some think it was because he experienced limited education in a rural one-room schoolhouse.
The Frank Phillips Ranch was established in 1925.
It is not, however, a typical ranch. While there are some longhorn cattle and bison on it, there are also elk, zebra, ostrich, and llama and once you drive past all of these, you’ll reach a huge museum at the top of the hill, near Frank’s lodge.
In 1929, Frank had a stone pavilion built on the hill above the lodge for the Woolaroc airplane, a small, single-engine monoplane sponsored by Frank Phillips that was flown in an air race from Oakland, CA to Honolulu, HI in August of 1927. The Dole Air Race had a $3500 prize and the Woolaroc plane and pilot took first place. Though he did not realize it at the time, Frank had just built the beginning of his own private museum. The entire history of this long distance air competition is really interesting and can now be found in the museum along with the plane!
By 1944, the museum had grown significantly and six years before his death, Frank wrote this in his dedication of the museum, “Those of us who have been more fortunate have a debt to society, which I believe can best be paid by training and educating the youth of the nation. I dedicate this museum to the boys and girls of today the fathers and mothers of tomorrow. May they profit by a knowledge of man’s past and be enabled to plan and live a happier future.”
Today the 50,000 sq. ft. Woolaroc Museum is considered world class. It contains Native American and Western art and artifacts, one of the most complete collections of Colt firearms in the world, the Woolaroc airplane and story of the Dole Air Race, history and artifacts related to oil collection, the story of Frank Phillips, and much more. (Link here to location, ticket pricing and hours of operation).
Woolaroc was one of the most surprising small town attractions we’ve seen to date!
