Fort Sill museum gets another piece of history

FORT SILL -- Officials added another piece of history to the Field Artillery Museum on Friday as they placed a piece of the World Trade center on permanent display.

The twisted and smashed I-beam, measuring about 31 inches tall by about 16 inches wide, was recovered at the trade center site in June 2002 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The process of getting the piece to Fort Sill started this past summer. The piece arrived at Fort Sill as it was recovered; covered in mud. The paint had been burned off and the bare beam had started to rust.

Field Artillery Museum officials cleaned up the beam and put a protective coating on it. Otherwise, the piece stands as it was taken from the massive pile of debris in 2002.

Museum Curator Gordon Blaker said he decided not to put the I-beam under glass so museum visitors could touch a piece of history, much like they can a section of the Berlin Wall that stands about 12 feet from the I-beam.

“The Wall started the cold war, the bombing of the World Trade Center is the reason we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s important people get to touch something associated with those moments in our history.”

The Field Artillery Museum is located just off Interstate 44 inside Fort Sill’s Key Gate West and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.