Page "Winchester, Oklahoma" Paragraph 8

Winchester made the news briefly in March 1989 when the Institute for the Study of American Wars ( ISAW ), a Delaware-based nonprofit organization, chose Winchester over competing sites in Oklahoma, Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Mexico for a proposed $ 150 million war museum complex.

However, the selection was withdrawn in April after a disagreement regarding donation of the land.

ISAW claimed the State of Oklahoma could not or would not follow through on an earlier pledge of immediate donation in fee of 300 acres of land, and was instead offering only a 200-year lease of the land and / or was demanding proof that ISAW had the funding to build the museum prior to transfer of the land.

ISAW later admitted to having raised only $ 65, 000.

ISAW then selected the Phoenix area and on July 17, 1989 announced the exact site as a donated 300 acres of a 7, 500-acre cotton farm between Phoenix and Tucson once owned by movie star John Wayne, known as John Wayne's Red River Ranch, in Casa Grande, Arizona.

In the end, the museum was never built in any location, and ISAW's entity status was voided effective March 1, 1998 by the Delaware Secretary of State.