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The year was 1969 and the mood was high as high as the man on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong had done what no man had done before him. From his hometown of Wapakoneta, across the United States, and around the world, people wanted to honor his feat.
The Apollo 11 crew had completed the greatest journey in human history putting men on the moon and setting the course for the future of the nation’s space program.
The impact of that journey is still felt in Wapakoneta today. Businesses and streets in the community reflect the pride the city has in its native son, the first man to walk on the moon.
On July 20, 1969, Ohio governor James Rhodes proposed a museum as a monument to the achievements of not only Armstrong but "all Ohioans who have attempted to defy gravity," as well as to the history of the space program itself.
After the state of Ohio pledged $500,000 for the museum, Governor Rhodes challenged the local community to match, dollar for dollar, the funds to build the facility. "Neil Armstrong is the man of the century and we want to perpetuate his achievements here in Ohio," Rhodes said.
Wapakoneta residents met that challenge head on. Businesses and individuals alike donated to the cause. Even school children saved their pennies and nickels in order to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime project.
When the governor returned to Wapakoneta, he was presented with a check for $528,313.55. Of the total, over half had been raised by the citizens of Wapakoneta.
Plans for the museum were unveiled during the groundbreaking ceremony in 1970. The design was unique. Earth was mounded around the steel-reinforced concrete building, giving the building the semblance of being underground.
Designed as an astrotheater for multimedia film and sound presentations on space, the central sphere, fifty-six feet in diameter, dominates the entire complex, creating the futuristic moon-base design.
On July 20, 1972, three years to the day after Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum opened to much fanfare. Neil Armstrong was present to help open the facility, and Tricia Nixon Cox, standing in for her father, President Richard Nixon, presented moon rocks brought back to Earth from the Apollo 11 mission.
As space exploration has evolved, so have the exhibits at the Neil Armstrong Museum. But the focus has remained the same: to stand not only as a repository of Ohio's aeronautical history and a monument to Ohio's contribution to aviation and space exploration but also as a tribute to Ohioan Neil Armstrong, whose "one small step for a man" was indeed a "giant leap for mankind."
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