The Field of Empty Chairs at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, pictured March 4, 2025, honors the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — The national museum and memorial commemorating the Oklahoma City bombing will remain open despite the federal government’s partial shutdown.
Though it is affiliated with the National Park Service, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum’s operating hours won’t be affected because it does not receive annual appropriations from state, federal or local governments, officials said.
However, National Park Service rangers will not be on site during the shutdown, which began Wednesday after Congress was unable to reach a stopgap funding agreement ahead of the new federal fiscal year.
The memorial, which is located at the site of the 1995 bombing, commemorates the country’s worst act of domestic terrorism that killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured about 850.
In April 1995, a fertilizer and fuel oil bomb was detonated outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested and convicted for their roles in the attack. McVeigh was later executed.Nichols is serving life in prison. A third man, Michael Fortier, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for not reporting knowledge of the plot.
During the duration of the government shutdown, the Memorial and Museum plans to provide federal employees free admission to the museum if they present a valid federal identification.
The Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
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