This Small-Town Oklahoma Museum Is One of the Best in the Country

Whether you've heard it or said it before, this will sound familiar. There's a common belief among the youth across the Sooner State that there's nothing to do in Oklahoma.

Oh, how wrong they can be. There's not only a ton of stuff to do in this state, but it's just spread so wide that people quite literally either don't know about a cool place to spend an afternoon, or they've forgotten.

Case in point, the Museum of the Great Plains is located three-quarters of a mile from the Downtown Studios here in Lawton, and yet most people who live here have never been. I cannot even begin to tell you how insanely cool it is. You just have to experience it for yourself.

Another of these mostly ignored experiences is located in Weatherford. The town is really only known for Southwestern Oklahoma State University and college house parties, but there's more.

The Stafford Air and Space Museum is among the best aerospace museums in the country, but it just happens to be way off the beaten path in a small town.

Named for Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, a Weatherford native and one of only 24 humans who've flown to the moon. He served on Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the moon landing of Apollo 11. It was during this space flight that Stafford set the record for the fastest speed a human has ever traveled, just under 25,000 MPH.

It's a record that still stands today, shared with the two other astronauts on that flight.

As you'd expect, there's plenty of early NASA stuff to look at. Suits, aircraft, etc... But also a ton of other aerospace interests and crafts to inspect for yourself.

Ask anyone who has been there, and they'll recommend that the Stafford Air and Space Museum is one of the few mandatory Oklahoma experiences everyone should have at least once.

You can scope it out and plan your trip here.