Hinton Historical Museum(52)

About an hour west of Oklahoma City, Art Peters has been working diligently to bring the history of Western Oklahoma back to life and he's doing it in two different ways. As you can see in the Hinton Historical Museum, they've collected a lot of great things from our past which I'll elaborate on. But Art is also an avocational archeologist which is a fancy way of saying he's super smart about archeology, but he doesn't have a degree in it. And from what I've seen, and all the things he talked to me about, he doesn't need a degree to unearth some of the great artifacts he's dug up all across Western Oklahoma, and specifically along the Wagon Train Road.

The emigrants who were bound for California in the 1800s had to go through Indian Territory to reach their west coast destination. A couple of trails were blazed for this purpose and the route can still be seen in some parts of the country. What's cool is Art Peters can spot a campsite like I can spot a Love's Country Store. Through constant research, scouting, and digging, Art has found dozens of trail campsites, burial sites, and a few surprise sites. Most of these places are on private property so Art has become friends with a lot of folks who have been kind enough to allow him to survey and dig on thier land. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who don't ask permission and poach some of these sites. And that makes the process of finding theses sites more difficult. Untrusting land owners don't want just everyone poking around. Thankfully, Art's reputation as a legit historian gets him access to places that the average Joe isn't allowed. And to help, Art has a registered archeologist that signs off on everything which is part of the legal way to go about projects like this. Most of the work outside the museum doors ends up inside where the artifacts and maps of the dig sites are on display. And as a novice metal detector nerd, I was thrilled by all the things he's found out in the middle of what seems like nowhere, but was an important part of this country's expansion.

There is a sign at the front counter that says no photos, but after my wife and I spoke to Art for a time and I explained my project, he allowed me to get photos and share his story. Below you can see some of the artifacts he's found. He explained to us what things were and what they were used for. It was an eye opening history lesson. Some other things that are stand outs about the Hinton Museum are they have the largest collections of three different things, horse drawn carriages, telephones, and a barbed wire collection that was donated by one guy. I thought the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum had the most barbed wire, but Hinton has them beat by about 300 examples. Also in the museum, you'll see washing machines, butter churns, typewriters, cars, belt buckles, and music instruments. It's an amazing place! Pulling up I didn't notice that it was a two level museum, but you can see the bottom level as you're walking in the door. I laughed a little because I wasn't expecting it at all. HA! Looks can be deceiving.

The last thing is pictured at the bottom. Art has become an expert in his field through hard work and diligence. He's written a few booklets that you can purchase here. He's planning a big book, but that takes time and he's always busy digging. Another accomplishment is Art was a key part of presenting a story for the Oklahoma PBS station OETA. They did a documentary piece called "Digging the Wagon Road" that can be seen on OETA's television channel. A trailer for it can be seen on YouTube. This short documentary won an Emmy Award! The folks at OETA said that if they won the award, they would give the statue to Art. And that's exactly what happened. I had to take a picture of Art with it, which apparently happens a lot. Super cool!!

801 S. Broadway, Hinton

405-542-3181

Hinton Historical Museum

Jonathan Elmore ©2025