Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum
 Ark City CVB |
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| Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum 31639 US 77 Arkansas City, KS 67005 Map This! |
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| 620 442-6750 |
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| www.arkcity.org | |
| museum@arkcity.org | |
| Admission: Adults - $3.50; Seniors $3.25; Children 6 - 12 $1.50; Under 6 free | |
| Hours: Tue. - Sat. 10:00am - 5:00pm | |
- Kid Friendly!
Experience the history of the Cherokee Strip Land Rush, early Arkansas City, South Central Kansas, and North Central Oklahoma. Learn about the culture that lived in the area. Visit and attend the Bland School House. Visualize the prairie as you walk through the native wildflowers. The museum is the southernmost site in Kansas along the Prairie Passage.
While here take in our exhibits and the Cowley County Genealogy Library where you can learn about those who made the land rush in 1893, early pioneers of the area and much more.
The Mountain Man Encampment is held to celebrate the history of the fur trade in America. In the Arkansas City area, the French and Spanish traded amongst the Wichita Indians. In 1719 a French explorer named Jean Baptiste Bernard de la Harpe is known to have made contact with the Wichita tribe near Deer Creek, OK. It is known that the Spanish also had contact with the Native Americans of the area.
The encampment hosts mountain man camps from before 1840, Native American dancers, traders, musicians and tradesmen of the era. Visitors can learn to throw tomahawks, make bows and arrows, learn medicinal practices and survival skills, and how to beadwork. - Held annually the first weekend in April.