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Boone Pickens Legacy Experience opens to public
Stillwater’ s newest museum opened in June 2025 and focuses on one man’ s contributions to not only Oklahoma State University, but also to the nation and the world.
Located on the Oklahoma State University campus in the West End Zone complex at Boone Pickens Stadium, the 10,000-square-foot Boone Pickens Legacy Experience tells the stories of T. Boone Pickens and his remarkable life.
Designed by Bostonbased designer and architect Andy Anway, the museum boasts interactive exhibits and a large collection of artifacts, gifts, awards, mementos and memorabilia that were carefully curated by his longtime associates Jay Rosser and Sally Geymuller – who now run the Boone Pickens Foundation – and by OSU museum staff.
The museum was completed in August 2024, and OSU held a VIP event the next month.
“ From September until January, it just sat here,” said Terry Tush, interim executive director at the museum.“ No one was coming in or out because they didn’ t have anyone running it.” When he was handed the reins in January 2025, Tush was told,“‘ Here it is, Terry, go make it happen.’ So, we made it happen,” he said.
In February, Tush began offering private tours, which lasted until April 19, when the museum held its“ Sneak Peek” event, coinciding with Oklahoma State Cowboy’ s final spring practice, the Remember the Ten Run, the Stillwater Arts Festival and more.
About 400 people registered for a tour, but with the weather turning south, only 125 people showed up. But Tush said 400 registrants was a good sign, that it“ showed that people are interested, and really want to see this and be a part of it. Part of being new is just getting the word out and letting people know.” Since March 1, nearly 1,200 visitors have toured the museum.
Tush said visitors are continually surprised by how much is packed into the museum – pulled from two semis full of memorabilia that Boone donated to the university. It will take curators between three to five years to catalog every item, Tush said. Boone Pickens Foundation staff began curating items about five years before Boone passed away, so the museum holds 95 % of the most interesting items to share with visitors. The museum features two floors of exhibits, including recreations of Pickens’ childhood home in Holdenville, Oklahoma, his office, and a replica of the 1955 Ford station wagon he used as his first mobile office. The exhibition also highlights Pickens’ $ 652 million in lifetime gifts, almost evenly split between OSU’ s athletic and academic programs, and his passion for giving during his lifetime instead of waiting until after his death.
The first stop for visitors is in the Boone Pickens Theater, where they will view a nine-minute video that gives a macro view of Boone’ s life and legacy.
“ What I’ ve learned the past five or six months is that there’ s a lot of people that come in here who have been around OSU for a long time, and they know everything about Boone Pickens and why he had such an impact on OSU. But I’ m also learn-
Boone ' s deal-making shoes
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