Awards & Accolades


2020-2021 Great Expectations Model School Certification-15 year award

2019-2020 – Great Expectations Model School Certification – 14 year award

2019 – True West Magazine Top Western Museums of the West 2019

2019 – Oklahoma Redbud Outstanding Attraction – (OK Travel Industry Association)- Merit Award for the year 2018

2019 – Great Expectations Model School Certification – 13 year award

2019 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice awards for #1 Tourist Destination and Best Museum

2018 – Best Heritage Attraction – The Official Best of Oklahoma 2018!

2018 – Great Expectations Model School Certification – 12 year award

2018 – Department of The Army – Certificate of Appreciation (for support of the Fort Sill Commercial Sponsorship Program for Fiscal Year 2018)

2018 (May 15) – The Oklahoma Travel Industry Association (OTIA) awarded the Chisholm Trail 150th Partnership with three of the state’s highest honors given in the Oklahoma tourism industry during the RedBud Awards Ceremony. The partnership, comprised of the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Visit Enid and the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid, and the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), won the RedBud Award for Outstanding Media Coverage and earned Merit Awards (category runner-up) for Best Partnership and Best Tri-Fold or Single Sheet Brochure or Publication.

2018 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice awards for #1 Tourist Destination and Best Museum

2017 – Department of The Army – Certificate of Appreciation (for support of the Fort Sill Commercial Sponsorship Program for Fiscal Year 2017)

2017 – Oklahoma Redbud Outstanding Attraction – (OK Travel Industry Association)

2017 – Great Expectations Model School Certification 11 year Award

2016 – True West Magazine “Top Ten Western Museum” Award

2016 – Texoma Gives – “Best Marketing” Second Place

2017 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice awards for #1 Tourist Destination and Best Museum

2016 – Great Expectations Model School Certification 10 Year Award

2016 – National Day of the Cowboy’s “Cowboy Keeper” Award

2016 – Oklahoma Redbud Merit Award (OK Travel Industry Association) Outstanding Attraction

2016 – Oklahoma Redbud Merit Award (OK Travel Industry Association) Outstanding New Event for Campfires, Cattle & Cowboys Gathering (a cowboy poetry festival)

2016 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice awards for #1 Tourist Destination and Best Museum

2015 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification. Only non-profit to hold this title.

2015 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice Award for Best Museum and for Best Tourist Destination

2014 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification. Only non-profit to hold this title. Consecutively for eight years.

2014 – “Outstanding Attraction” Oklahoma Redbud Awards, presented by Oklahoma Travel Industry Association/Chickasaw Country.

2014 – “Black Cowboys on the Chisholm Trail” wins RedBud Merit Award for Outstanding Temporary Exhibit for 2013 for the state of Oklahoma

2014 – “On the Chisholm Trail Bronze” named as a top 20, in “20 Objects that Shape Oklahoma” in the August edition of Oklahoma Magazine

2014 – The Duncan Banner Readers’ Choice Award for Best Museum and for Best Tourist Destination

2013 – Oklahoma Museums Association Exhibit & Publication award winner for 2013 programming “Writing in Response to Art”

2013 – Oklahoma Arts & Humanities Non-Profit of the Year Excellence Awards/Chesapeake Energy Corporation Award

2013 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2012 – Oklahoma Museum Association Certificate of Recognition to board member Mike Smith for his volunteer services

2012 – Redbud Award for “Outstanding Temporary Exhibit” featuring artist Robby McMurtry

2012 – Redbud Merit Award for “Outstanding New Event” – the Western Fall Fest

2012 – “Favorite Museum” in the Best of Chickasaw Country

2012 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2011 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2011 – “Outstanding Publication” awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association for the “Creative Writing” publication featuring the writings of Duncan Middle School sixth-grade students

2011 – Outstanding Contribution to Wild West History awarded by Wild West History Association

2010 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2010 – “Outstanding Interpretive Exhibit” -‘Sounds of the Trail’ awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2010 – “Outstanding Website” – awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2009 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2009 – Redbud Award for “Outstanding Attraction” in Oklahoma at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism held in Tulsa, Oklahoma

2009 “Tourism Achievement of the Year Award” southwest Oklahoma’s Great Plains Country

2009 Festivals & Events Association of Oklahoma selected Cova Williams, Museum Coordinator as the “Event Professional of the Year”

2009 – “One of Top Ten Western Museums” – True West Magazine

2009 – “Outstanding Promotional Piece,” Chisholm Trail Heritage Centers’s media kit/flash drive awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2009 – “Outstanding Newsletter – Prairie Wind”, awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2008 – Outstanding Promotional Piece – Making History with the Arts DVD awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2008 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2007 – “Great Expectations Model School” certification

2006 – “Outstanding Outreach or Education Program – Making History with the Arts, awarded by Oklahoma Museums Association

2005 – “American Cowboy Culture Award” for Western Museums from the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas

2005 – “Outstanding local Historical Society/Museum in the State of Oklahoma,” awarded by The Oklahoma Historical Society

2003 – Redbud Merit Award Winner – “Outstanding New Event for Population Less than 40,000″ – Chisholm Trail Stampede Committee

2003 – Redbud Award for “Outstanding Attraction Population less than 40,000″ – Chisholm Trail Heritage Center & On the Chisholm Trail Association Board of Directors

2003 – “Community Improvement Award” – Chisholm Trail Heritage Center from Duncan Chamber of Commerce and Industry

1999 – “Stuart Indian Territory Award” for Organizations Preserving Oklahoma History – presented to On the Chisholm Trail Association

1998 – TOM MCCASLAND “In appreciation for your gift to the world the larger than life bronze, ON THE CHISHOLM TRAIL” from Dr. Walter Bishop, Historian Old Trail Drivers Association of Texas – Pioneer Museum, San Antonio, Texas