Steamboat Arabia
Picture it in your mind. You’re traveling from St. Louis to Kansas City in 1856. It’s nighttime, the air is sticky, crickets are chirping, fireflies light up the shores and someone is playing a banjo in the distance. No, you aren’t in a scene from Deliverance and you aren’t going to be made to “squeal like a pig!” You’re on the steamboat Arabia, cruising up the mighty Missouri river on your way to a new life way out west in Missouri!
Then, you hit a submerged log, the boat sinks and all of a sudden it sucks to be you. You’re on one of more than 300 steamboats that have met a similar fate. The Missouri river is tough to navigate.
The steamboat Arabia was a side-wheel steamer built in Brownsville, PA in 1853. She measured 171 feet long and was capable of carrying 222 tons. Against the Missouri’s swift current, the twin 28-foot tall paddlewheels could push the steamboat upstream at a speed of over 5 miles an hour. The Arabia was considered a dependable vessel and soon gained a reputation for speed, safety and comfort.
More than 130 years after the wreck, David Hawley, along with his father Bob and brother Greg went looking for the remains of the steamboat and found them in a field, nearly ½ mile from the present day riverbank. The crew was able to salvage parts of the riverboat, personal belongings of the passengers (no passengers died during the accident), cargo and other treasures. Those treasures are now on display at the Steamboat Arabia near Kansas City, Missouri.
Steamboat Arabia Museum
National Museum of Patriotism
Capitalizing on the swelling of patriotic feelings after 9/11, The National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta, Georgia takes the visitor through some of the events that have made the United States what it is today. Exhibits include a Hall of Patriots, Symbols of America, the Olympics, First Responders and more. Although it’s easy to be cynical about this “national” museum being in Atlanta rather than New York or DC and the view of history presented within its halls is straight out of high school textbooks (with any impropriety completely absent), the museum does a good job of instilling a valuable sense of national pride.
National Museum of Patriotism
Lincoln Pioneer Village and Museum
The Lincoln Pioneer Village and Museum in Rockport, Indiana doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot to do with Abraham Lincoln himself, other than a hutch made by his father. But, the name sells and this IS the “land of Lincoln!”
So, the attractions don’t have much to do with Lincoln and the log cabins aren’t original. The museum has a lot of old “stuff” you see in other museums. This is just basically someone’s dream to milk your tourist dollar. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting or worth a stop if you’re in the neighborhood.
Honig met many obstacles. But he persisted, saying: “The citizens of Spencer County will see the vision, then we will build a historic memorial to Lincoln that will visualize the Spencer County environment in which Lincoln lived during the 14 formative years of his life, from 1816 to 1830.”
Honig made the blueprints for the buildings after long and careful research, then superintended the construction of the village.
Lincoln Pioneer Village
Tinkertown
Tinkertown is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a collection of animated carvings that bring an Old West town to life through fun and humorous scenes. Some of the creations require a quarter to operate but most of them are worth it.
It took Ross Ward over 40 years to carve, collect, and lovingly construct what is now Tinkertown Museum. His miniature wood-carved figures were first part of a traveling exhibit, driven to county fairs and carnivals in the 1960s and ’70s. Today over 50,000 glass bottles form rambling walls that surround a 22-room museum. Wagon wheels, old fashioned store fronts, and wacky western memorabilia make Tinkertown’s exterior as much as a museum as the wonders within.
Tinkertown
The Batmobile from Historic Auto Attractions
Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, Illinois doesn’t really sound that interesting. It doesn’t look very interesting from the outside, either. So, why would anybody go inside? Because it has some of the coolest cars ever created inside it, that’s why!
Check out this small sample of the eclectic collection:
- The Batmobile from the 1960s TV show and the one from Batman Returns
- Sanford and Son’s truck
- Limos from world leaders: U. S. presidents to Adolf Hitler
- The station wagon from National Lampoon’s Vacation
- Various racecars driven by famous drivers
- The ambulance from Ghostbusters
- The DeLorean from Back to the Future
- The car from the Flintstones movie
- Andy Griffith’s police car
- The Grateful Dead’s tour bus
The 36,000 square foot museum has a world-class collection, started by an autoworker turned businessman who uses his business to finance this fine collection. There’s something for everyone here; if someone in your family doesn’t care about cars, he or she may enjoy some of the other displays like Jackie Kennedy’s dresses, actual White House furniture and the JFK assassination display. But if you’re a car buff, this is a must see location!
Historic Auto Attractions
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Conjoined Twins (or Two-Headed Child)
When Thomas Dent Mütter donated his collection to College of Physicians of Philadelphia, he didn’t intend it to be a freak show. Indeed, he wanted other physicians and students of medicine to see and learn from artifacts from people with strange diseases and deformities. And for many years that was its primary purpose. But today, it attracts tourists like a P. T. Barnum sideshow.
Some of the pieces in the collection include a plaster cast of Ying and Yang, the famous Siamese twins, from which the common name for conjoined twins came; the “soap lady” whose flesh turned into a soap-like substance; hundreds of skulls with various abnormalities; skeletons of “two headed people” (a type of conjoined twin); and a woman with a horn growing out of her forward. The museum also contains many old medical instruments that were likely very effective in “curing” people, once the patient saw them (“No, doctor, really. I feel MUCH better now!”). And, there are more normal exhibits from famous people like a cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland.
Gretchen Worden is the woman “credited” with moving the museum from a place of medical science seen by a few hundred people a year in 1975 to more than 60,000 tourists a year when she died in 2004. No word on whether or not she became an exhibit herself!
The Mütter Museum
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Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Denver and Rio Grande Railway founded Durango, Colorado in 1880 and track was soon laid to haul gold and silver ore to Silverton. Eventually, the mines played out, a fire destroyed much of Silverton and later the Spanish Flu killed 10% of the town’s population. But the trains continued hauling passengers through the scenic mountains and Hollywood later discovered the railroad and used it in several movies including Around the World in 80 Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and others. Today, the railroad is called the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway and is a popular destination for railfans of all ages.
Today the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad continues to provide year-round train service, operating a historical train with rolling stock indigenous to the line. The locomotives used to pull today’s train remain 100% coal-fired, steam-operated. The locomotives are 1923-25 vintage and are maintained in original condition. The coaches each feature bathroom facilities and are heated during the winter months for passenger comfort. Open gondola cars provide a panoramic view of the mountains. Concessions are available on every train.
D&SNGRR
Lucy the Elephant, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey
In 1881, 25-year-old James V. Lafferty had some oceanfront land to sell and he needed a gimmick to do it. That gimmick was Lucy, a six-story high, 90-ton wood and tin structure built in the shape of a giant elephant from nearly a million pieces of wood. Lucy worked as intended, Lafferty got a patent on animal shaped buildings and people flocked to his land to see it. Lucy was so popular Lafferty built two more similar structures including one on Coney Island that was twice as high as Lucy but it burned and today the original Lucy is the only survivor.
Throughout her history, Lucy has served as a real estate office (her original purpose), bar, and hotel. Today she serves as a museum. Entry into Lucy is through a door on one of her legs and visitors can go all the way up to “howdah” for commanding views of the ocean.
If you’re in Atlantic City, take a few minutes to drive to Margate, New Jersey and see Lucy in person. Since she can be seen for up to eight miles away, you shouldn’t have any problem finding her!
Lucy the Elephant
Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, Maine
The Seashore Trolley Museum was founded in 1939 with one open trolley car, No. 31 from the Biddeford & Saco Railroad Company. Over the years thousands of members have followed the founding fathers by helping the Museum grow to be the premier electric railway museum in the world. Today, our collection contains over 250 transit vehicles, most of them trolleys, from all over the United States, Canada, and many other countries. We are the oldest, and largest electric railway museum in the world.
In 1939, three men were out and about looking at trains in Lewiston, Maine. At the time, one of the few remaining companies to still be offering trolley service, the Biddeford & Saco Railroad, had just ordered buses and the end of trolley service was drawing near. So, the three men raised $150 (from 10 different people) and purchased one of the trolley cars for restoration and preservation.
From that one car, the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine was born. Today, the museum boasts the largest collection of trolley cars anywhere in the world. Some of the trolleys are still in operation and the museum entry fee includes unlimited rides.
Seashore Trolley Museum
Allosaurus Skeleton
The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is located near Cleveland, Utah and holds the highest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur bone fossils ever found. To date, more than 15,000 bones have been uncovered although the bones are widely scattered so finding complete skeletons is difficult. Most of the bones excavated to date are in the Utah Museum of Natural History but many of the bones are scattered around the world in other museums.
Scientists believe the area was covered with a sticky mud at one point and created a sort of dinosaur trap. They also believe the high ratio of predator to prey skeletons means the Allosaurus in particular probably hunted in packs (there are bones from at least 44 Allosaurus in the area). Other bones are from Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Stegasaurus and many more.
A visitor center has a skeleton of an Allosaurus on display along with other bones. If you run across any dinosaur bones while visiting, they should be reported to the Bureau of Land Management, who operates the visitor center.
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