5 Monster Museums You’ve Never Heard Of
But need to visit as soon as possible!
Museums come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some of them house the world’s most prized possessions, from classical paintings to scientific artifacts. Some preserve local and national history.
And others, well, they offer a more unique experience to their patrons.
These museums are filled with the wonderfully wacky, weird, and unexplained. Paranormal, cryptozoological, and ufology museums exist around the country and cater to those fascinated with the bizarre. These modern mystery museums offer possible answers for things that go bump in the night.
Museums are spaces where people gather to learn and be entertained. Monster folklore and history have been fascinating people since the ancient Greeks found giant bones from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras. We’re all curious about what could still be lurking in the shadows.
These museums prove that those monsters might be closer than we think. Here is a top ten list of monster museums across America.
- North American Bigfoot Center (Boring, Oregon)
Who doesn’t love Bigfoot? If you’ve ever seen an episode of Finding Bigfoot, this museum is for you! Located in Boring, Oregon, this museum contains some of the best Bigfoot evidence ever. The museum was opened by Cliff Barakman in 2019.
If his name sounds familiar, it’s because you really have seen an episode of Finding Bigfoot. Cliff appeared in every single episode of the hit Animal Planet show about a group of Bigfoot hunters who searched the world looking for the creature. Cliff opened the museum with his wife, Melissa, and it contains his personal collection of casts (one of the largest personal collections in the world) as well as props from the show.
From video evidence to blurry pictures, to a cast of Bigfoot fingers taken from a Nutella jar, this Bigfoot center has everything you need to believe in the wild man of the woods.
The small building provides displays of footprints, handprints, and even… a bum print of these alleged and elusive creatures.
It offers scientific and historical evidence supporting the existence of the Sasquatch.
The museum is also a research and information center. With Cliff working most days, you can have a conversation and share your experiences with one of the leading Bigfoot experts in the world.
Cliff has made a reputation for himself in the Bigfoot community because he has a massive knowledge base on the creature’s behavior patterns, physical features, and geographical locations. He’s an expert. And his collection of Bigfoot artifacts is as legit as it gets in the cryptozoology field.
Price of Entry: $8
2. Willow Creek-China Flat Museum (Willow Creek, California)
In 1967 the world was introduced to Patty, an alleged Bigfoot caught on camera by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. That film skyrocketed interest in the elusive creatures of the woods and brought hordes of Bigfoot hunters to Northern California. The town of Willow Creek is located near the Six Rivers National Forest. It’s lush with trees, water sources, and animal life making it the perfect habitat for a Sasquatch according to Bigfoot experts.
If you drive up Trinity Highway, you’ll pass a Bigfoot burger place, a large mural featuring Bigfoots working side by side with natives, a Bigfoot statue, and a Bigfoot museum.
The museum preserves the history of the region, but the biggest draw is their Bigfoot exhibit where local evidence is displayed. Alongside artifacts from the local Indigenous tribes (the Hupa, Yurok, Karok, Chimariko, and Wintu) are Bigfoot footprint casts and pictures.
You can look at maps of the surrounding forest where Bigfoot sightings have been reported and you can learn about generations of Sasquatch legends from locals. The museum endorses outdoor education, historical reverence, and family-friendly Bigfoot hunts.
Price of Entry: Free
3. Cryptozoology and Paranormal Museum (Littleton, North Carolina)
The town of Littleton may not have much, but it does have this awesome three-room little paranormal and cryptozoology museum. Run by Stephen Barcello, this museum is free to the public and contains Bigfoot tracks, haunted dolls, and ghost hunting equipment. What more could you want in one weird place!
The museum itself is inside a haunted house, which adds to the exhibit’s aesthetic and allure. It may be a small museum where people can be in and out in around ten minutes.
Still, suppose you let yourself linger in the experience of the weirdness surrounding you, or you find yourself deep in conversation with Steve. In that case, it’s worth the effort to get there, no matter how far. This museum covers all the monster bases.
“Dedicated to the study and display of creatures and phenomena not recognized by traditional science.”
Price of Entry: FREE (But you should totally drop some cash in the donation bin)
4. Expedition Bigfoot: The Sasquatch Museum (Blue Ridge, Georgia)
Expedition Bigfoot: The Sasquatch Museum in Cherry Log, Georgia, is “North Georgia’s Biggest Family Attraction” according to their website. This three-room exhibit with a gift shop and small movie theatre is home to some of the most valuable Bigfoot evidence in history, including legendary casts and artifacts from some of the most famous stories in Sasquatch studies.
The outside of the museum looks like a hotel or hostel from the Himalayas. It sits on the side of a small Georgia highway as if it’s a safe haven after a long and arduous hike in the mountains. Adventure theme music blasts from the building as you open your car door.
Featuring music from Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, it prepares you for an adventure. As the museum’s name suggests, when you enter the museum, you are going on your own expedition.
This is not just a museum for tourists but is an active place of research and data collection. They are a research and reporting center housing current investigators’ data and secured evidence from the field.
Bigfoot researchers from all around George report their sightings and findings at this post, making it a certified monster hub. “Our museum provides a lot of that evidence and leaves the question of Bigfoot’s existence up to you. So, whether you’re a skeptic, believer, or “knower,” all are welcome.
Price of Entry: $8
5. Flatwoods Monster Museum (Sutton, West Virginia)
Something flew across the sky on a dark night in West Virginia. The year was 1952 when a group of young boys spotted a red streak make its way to Earth. The group had a horrifying encounter with a massive monster, now known as The Flatwoods Monster. It was about ten feet tall with a red and green body and a glowing face.
The sighting caused an uproar and made national news. The witnesses claimed that a monster from outer space had landed in Flatwoods, West Virginia. This even prompted the Air Force to launch an official investigation, as part of Project Blue Book.
The museum acts as a Flatwoods Monster mecca. It’s a safe place for people who believe in the monster and those still on the fence about what people saw nearly six decades ago. Miniature models of the famous creature are displayed in cases alongside newspaper articles surrounding the events and other historical documents and artifacts that involve the monster.
It’s a small museum with a modest gift shop where you can buy t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and lanterns, all showcasing the famous monster figure.
“Visit the Flatwoods Monster Museum and discover the legend of our famous monster that helped usher in the age of UFO sightings all over the world!”
Price of Entry: $8
These aren’t your average monster museums. These hubs of paranormal and supernatural activity offer up a different sort of perspective on the world — one where anything is possible if you look hard enough.
