J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum

In 1929, a transplanted Arkansas sawmill owner named J.M. Davis decided to put his collection of 99 firearms on display in the lobby of his Claremore, Oklahoma, hotel. Some 40 years later, on Davis’s 82nd birthday, the artifacts found a permanent home at the Claremore’s J.M. David Arms and Historical Museum, an internationally known tourist attraction celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019. Today, thousands of visitors a year marvel at exhibits featuring statuary, knives, swords, saddles, American Indian artifacts, political buttons, World War I posters, and many other items–all in addition to the most extensive private collection of guns on the face of the earth. With words and pictures, this book tells the behind-the-scenes story of the museum and John Monroe Davis–the man, his times, and his amazing acquisitions.