Believe it or not, Twister — the 1996 blockbuster that gave us flying cows, storm-chasing sex appeal, and maybe the most Oklahoma energy ever captured on film — is almost thirty years old.
In the tiny town of Wakita, where much of it was filmed, the Twister Movie Museum at 101 W. Main Street still stands as a nostalgic, hand-built tribute to Oklahoma chaos and the cult of Gary England.
Despite three decades of the museum's regional fandom, I’d never made the pilgrimage. But with a rough few years of health in my rear-view and a new marriage that put some literal wind back in my sails, my wife and I hit the backroads to Wakita for a museum adventure.
Once we got north past Enid—a fancy little town that I would like to visit someday—the rest of the way to Wakita is down farm-roads, back-roads and, surprisingly, dirt-roads until a handmade sign welcomes travelers to the city limits.
The rain sprinkled on us as we got closer to the Twister museum. It was a weekday afternoon, and the post office was closed, the movie-centric Twister Café was closed, and, of course, the multiple feed and grain stores were definitely closed. Wakita was an absolute ghost town.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that was up and running in town was the Twister Movie Museum. Feeling lucky, we dodged raindrops from the car to the museum's open door.
As I walked through the museum’s threshold, I was immediately confronted with one of those Chuck E. Cheese-style portrait stands where a human face goes in where a flying cow’s head should be...from that moment, I knew I was in the right place.
From the small lobby to the main room, much like the Wizard of Oz, the museum sparkled in grand Technicolor as it opened up to the real-life prop of Dorothy, the tornado tracker, and her movie-made ephemera as the main centerpiece of the whole place.
Most of the museum’s exhibits are of the “newspaper clipping” variety, from the studio shots of the cast in their windswept costumes to a whole table of Oklahoma’s home-grown meteorologists, past and present. The father, the son, and the holy Gary England!
Speaking of which, there was a copy of Gary England’s biblical Those Terrible Twisters that was displayed in all its glory. Surely, the out-of-print book could be reprinted and sold at the gift shop... couldn’t it?
After a few minutes gabbing with other guests about their massive fandom of the Twister franchise, I secretly purchased a souvenir tee for my wife's collection: Twisters’ iconic “tornado wrangler” Tyler giving the movie’s catchphrase “If you can feel it…chase it!”
Walking out to the car, I was glad I finally felt it — after thirty years, I chased it.
The Twister Movie Museum isn’t exactly the Smithsonian — and thank God for that. It’s a homegrown collection of props, newspaper clippings, and weather-worn memorabilia, held together by nostalgia and duct tape. But for an Oklahoman raised on Gary England, flying cows, and the fantasy of storm-chasing glory, it hits in an oddly satisfying way.
As I gave the museum one last look from the car, the wind whipped my hair, the skies got really dark, and the rain started coming down harder. Heading out, my phone sounded a weather advisory that, back in Oklahoma City, there was a tornado warning.
With our life (probably) hanging in the balance of the coming storm, I gave my wife the shirt, probably her last gift until we’re swept up like so many heifers.
Luckily, she liked the shirt and, after giving me a kiss on the cheek, we buckled our seat belts, said a prayer, and – like Jo and Bill – drove towards the storm.
-
Follow Louis Fowler on Instagram at @louisfowler78.
