When brainstorming with Dan about where our next small adventure should be, he said the magic words that pretty much sum up the mission of this blog: “You know, there’s this one place…I’ve driven by it a lot and wondered what was inside.” Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!
And that’s how we arrived at the DW Correll Museum on Route 66 in Catoosa.
Actually, it’s the DW Correll Museums, plural. Within the two buildings onsite, there are multiple extensive collections ranging from classic cars, to vintage toys, to Jim Beam decanters, to arrowheads, to old newspaper clippings, to seashells, to rocks and minerals.
From my quick online search ahead of time, I thought it was primarily a car museum, which still would have been plenty of fun. However, it was a LOT more than that!
About the DW Correll Museum
The museum buildings sit on what was formerly the Correll property just off Route 66 on the south side of Catoosa (a family member still lives in the adjacent home, which is not part of the museum).
Mr. Correll was a local businessman and avid collector of all the things, and he left them to the city when he passed. Most of the museum’s current exhibits are originally from Mr. Correll’s private collection.
What We Saw
The public spaces are contained within two large buildings. The first building contains the gift shop area (bring some extra cash for postcards, cool rocks, and handmade jewelry), as well as the rock, shell, toy, arrowhead, fossil, and newspaper collections. It also has a neat little room to see fluorescent minerals under UV light.
The displays are surprisingly eclectic. Dinosaur teeth? They got ’em. A vintage Darth Vader action figure? Got that, too. Historic mining equipment? Absolutely. What about diecast cars? You know it! I didn’t expect the variety of things to look at, and I was absolutely delighted by the discoveries around every corner.
The second building contains a collection of wagons and classic cars, including a vintage Ford Model A, a Rolls Royce, and an original purple (!) Cadillac. (Also, a collection of car jacks, model tractors, and a mummified cat, just because.)
It also contains one of the most interesting places I’ve ever seen: the lapidary shop.
The Lapidary Cave Of Wonders
I didn’t know it ahead of time, but we happened to visit the DW Correll Museum on the same day that the Tulsa Rock and Mineral Society had their monthly meet-up in the lapidary shop (lapidary is a fancy word for cutting, polishing, and engraving stones or gems).
The workshop was bustling with society members sharing their new finds with each other, using the shop equipment to cut and polish personal stones, and just generally having a great time. They welcomed me and Dan, and were happy to show us around.
Full Disclosure: You should know this about me now. I LOVE rocks. I’m fascinated by the variety, color, weight, texture, and mystery of all the different kinds of rocks that are formed in the secret depths of the earth and unexpectedly reveal their beauty to those who are lucky enough to find them.
I come by it honestly. My maternal grandparents landscaped their patio with lava rocks and regaled me with stories of the thunder eggs and obsidian chunks they brought back from a visit to Mount St. Helens.
My paternal grandparents kept a rock garden underneath a big tree in the front yard, and every time one of us kids found a particularly good specimen, grandma would write our name and the date on the rock before giving it a place of honor under the oak tree.
No matter where I’m walking, I always semi-consciously scanning the ground for good rocks. As I look around my office right now, I can count 1…2…3…um, several rocks gracing my bookshelves as reminders of adventures past.
So I don’t know if I can fully explain my excitement when Eric, the museum curator, said: “The lapidary shop is in the second building. They’re working in there today, but you’re welcome to watch.”
My New Best Friends at the DW Correll Museum
The lapidary workshop was humming with activity, and we hesitated at the door until Billy, a Tulsa Rock and Mineral Society member, kindly offered to show us around. Billy pointed out and explained the various pieces of equipment: multiple rock tumblers turning in one corner, vibrating rock polishers moving pieces around like an air hockey table, and large wet saws dividing bigger specimens in the middle of the room.
Billy was in the process of making an exploratory cut in a large black rock he’d found to see what might be inside. Another society member had brought in several intriguing finds, hoping to get insight from other members on what they might be. A third member seemed to simply be enjoying the company (and the friendly one-upsmanship) of fellow rock hunters.
Overseeing the room was museum employee Jane. Jane actually started at the museum as a volunteer and (in her words) hung around so long they finally just hired her. Her enthusiastic passion for rocks was immediately apparent and she showed us possibly the best part of the workshop: one entire wall of file cabinets, each drawer full to the top with quartz, tiger eye, opal, geodes, amethyst, and so many others I eventually lost count.
According to Jane, these rocks are often donated to the DW Correll Museum by families after a collector passes, and the museum repurposes many into pieces of one-of-kind jewelry to sell in the gift shop.
As we visited with Jane, Billy, and the workshop crew, I felt like a kid at the playground introducing a new acquaintance: “This is my new best friend – we just met!” I don’t know too many situations where “what’s your favorite rock?” is an appropriate conversation starter, but it definitely was with these folks. (For the record, my new favorite rock: the common opal Jane showed me in the workshop. It looks like an elegant blue-and-white china pattern, and I LOVE it.)
Eventually…The Classic Car Collection at DW Correll Museum
After my nerd-out in the lapidary workshop, I temporarily forgot about the rest of the museum. Dan was a good sport about it (he’s a very patient man), and we eventually made it to the classic car collection.
The collection focuses on early American models, and includes some real beauties. I don’t know nearly as much about cars as Dan, but I still found a lot to appreciate. Old spoked tires, sculptural hood ornaments, rumble seats, and a precursor to the modern car “trunk” – each car was a piece of art in its own way.
What We Learned
There’s a lot to choose from! One area that we lingered over: the history of lead and zinc mining in the “tri-state” area (the corner where Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri meet).
I superficially knew about this industry because of local news reports over the years about the ghost town of Picher, Oklahoma and how “decades of unrestricted subsurface excavation dangerously undermined most of Picher’s town buildings and left giant piles of toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings heaped throughout the area.” This eventually led to a mandatory evacuation of the town, which remains toxic and uninhabitable to this day.
The displays of early mining equipment, photos, and artifacts put a more personal face on the stories, especially an old metal box filled with crystals next to an explanation of the “lunch box rule:” it wasn’t part of a miner’s job to collect any minerals or stones they found while working, but they were allowed to take out anything they could fit in their lunchboxes.
Looking at the display, I could imagine myself a small child eagerly waiting for my father to come home, tired at the end of a long day but happy to bring me the treasures he found in the mine. I thought about the hard, dirty, hazardous work those men willingly undertook to provide for their families, and imagined the delight they felt whenever they saw the twinkle of quartz or amethyst from the light of their headlamps.
Interestingly, many of the rock specimens in that display were gathered by Mr. Correll himself, who went down into the mines to gather what he could and save them from the mine crusher.
DW Correll Museum – Worth a Visit?
Actually, I enjoyed myself so much I went back the very next day!
Even though the museum was closed, I just had to show Z all the rocks outside the buildings. We spent a full hour entertaining ourselves looking at all pretties (and obviously, leaving them for others to enjoy).
About the DW Correll Museum
Location: 19934 E Pine Street, Catoosa, OK
Cost: $3 Adults, 17 & under Free
Hours: Tu/Th 11AM-7PM, W-F-Sa 10AM-5PM
Website: https://www.cityofcatoosa.org/163/DW-Correll-Museum
Learn More: https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/how-the-dw-correll-museum-came-to-be
