Where to find the weirdest museums in the U.S.

In 2009, Loren Coleman’s collection of native art, foot casts, hair samples, models, and other memorabilia opened to the public as the International Cryptozoology Museum (ICM)—the first of its kind in the world. ICM is located in a strip of shops and restaurants on Thompson’s Point along the banks of the Fore River in Portland, Maine, and includes several “Bigfoot Parking Only” signs, casts of the creature’s namesake big feet, and numerous dolls and other artwork devoted to Bigfoot and other cryptids.

In 1880, Albert J. Akin founded the The Akin Hall Association with other members of the Quaker Hill community in Pawling, New York, in the service of “charity, literature, science and mutual improvement in religion.” Housed in the library's basement is the Olive M. Gunnison Collection. Donated to the library in 1960, the collection fills four rooms and is split into two sections: natural history and a cabinet of curiosities. Comprising a wide range of specimens far too vast to list, notable items include a shrunken head from Ecuador, the footprints of a dinosaur captured in stone, uranium ore, shards from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a mammoth tooth.

Located in the private home of Stephen Barcelo, a former New York City journalist, one room of The Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum is dedicated entirely to the paranormal. The collection includes several haunted dolls locked in cases, gravestone rubbings, an old wooden coffin, and shrunken heads. The museum also has several dozen casts of Bigfoot prints on display, a few of which have been made by Barcelo himself (others are gifts or copies); in the gift shop, “Bigfoot go bags” are for sale, containing everything one needs to gather proper evidence: a plaster of paris compound, knee pads, plastic bags, a Sharpie marker, a tape measure, lights, string, a whistle, and a bottle of water.

The Taxidermy Hall of Fame and Creation Museum's founder and curator, Kent Kelly, was the pastor of Calvary Memorial Church and an administrator at the Calvary Christian School in Southern Pines for more than 30 years. In 1989, Kelly suffered a major stroke and was unable to continue preaching. He spent his time traveling around the Southeast, acquiring pieces to add to his taxidermy collection, which he displayed in his mother’s bookstore. He expanded his collection to include tools, barbed wire, license plates, golf balls, sports memorabilia, and other artifacts he felt reinforced his beliefs.

Now with more than 20,000 salt and pepper shakers and 1,500 pepper mills, Gatlinburg's Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum started as a private collection. The first museum opened in Cosby, Tennessee, and three years later, it was upgraded to a space in downtown Gatlinburg. The collection is arranged by theme, color, time, and place, and includes shakers shaped like fruits, vegetables, U.S. presidents, holidays, animals, and pop culture characters.

Located just around the corner from the Harley-Davidson Museum, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum features nearly 10,000 bobbleheads of everyone from sports heroes to Hollywood celebrities. While the museum itself has a rotating collection of bobbleheads on display, its Hall of Fame features only the “best of the best,” as decided each year by Bobblehead Museum members.

The SPAM Museum, located in Austin, Minnesota, tells the history of Hormel Foods, the origin of SPAM products, and details the canned meat's peculiar place in pop culture. The 14,000-square-foot museum comprises nine galleries full of memorabilia, interactive videos, hands-on activities, and a gift shop offering hundreds of SPAM-branded items.

St. Louis’ City Museum might not be "hidden" but it's definitely a gem; the art and history museum is laid out as a surrealistic adult-friendly playground. One minute you're inside a gorgeous sculpture of a giant whale; the next you’re crawling through a cave. You can start off in a treehouse, hop down a slide, and wind up in a massive, adult-sized ball pit. Or you can be admiring a room full of priceless opera posters and accidentally wander into an aquarium.

The Oz Museum, built with a major grant from the State of Kansas and the generosity of community volunteers, houses more than just memorabilia from the famous 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. With more than 2,000 artifacts spanning 100 years of Oz history, exhibits also highlight earlier adaptations of Frank L. Baum's popular story, including silent films and The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

The Idaho Potato Museum showcases the state's famous starchy tuber. Located in the old Oregon Short Line Railroad Depot are exhibits on everything from the first potato planted in Idaho to the largest potato crisp made by the Pringle’s Company in Jackson, Tennessee. Visitors can order a genuine Idaho baked potato from the museum's cafe, read up on nutrition facts and trivia, and watch a short video presentation on the history of the potato industry.

The Bearded Lady's Mystic Museum, which is nestled between a wine bar and a pet spa on Magnolia Street, is a lot of things. It’s a place for palm readings, but it’s also a museum full of occult and macabre things, like ouija boards and ancient mummy skulls. It’s an oddities store, pop-up exhibit, art gallery, and home to the meetings of Club Coven, an association of non-denominational witches.