Merry-Go-Round Museum

While visiting Sandusky, take a spin on an antique merry-go-round at the end of an entertaining guided tour of the Merry-Go-Round Museum! Remember summer fun at the county fair or an amusement park. Learn about the art and history of carousels. Generations of joy for the entire family! The doors to the Merry-Go-Round Museum opened to the public on July, 14, 1990 but the idea was born on October 1, 1988 when the U.S. Postal Service issued four carousel stamps.  Paul Calle of Stamford, Connecticut designed the first set of stamps.  One of the featured animals was from Cedar Point’s Kiddieland carousel.  The first day issue ceremony was held at the Sandusky amusement park. The block of stamps included a Gustav Dentzel deer (ca. 1895), Charles Looff goat and camel (ca. 1880), and the King Armored horse by Daniel Muller (ca. 1925), The King horse is from Cedar Point’s Kiddieland carousel.  This particular King horse is considered to be one of the rarest and most beautiful of all carousel figures. The Merry-Go-Round Museum display artifacts that add to the public’s awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the history of the carousel.  Dentzel carving shop tools are a permanent exhibit, along with a working woodcarving shop, and the museum’s own machine, (circa 1939 Allan Herschell Corporation).  The museum continues to seek artifacts from amusement parks, carnivals, and private individuals, and encourages long and short-term loans of memorabilia and antiques from earlier periods of the amusement and carousel industry. The Merry-Go-Round Museum is also home to three separate ghosts. The first, often referred to simply as Muller’s Military Horse, is a magnificent carousel horse, carved in 1917 by Daniel C. Muller, is known for more than simply showcasing Muller’s fascination with Civil War and pre-World War II Calvary mounts. Rather, its real claim to fame is that it is often called the only haunted carousel horse in existence.  Although the legend of the Haunted Steed seems to have gone through a few changes through the years, the most current one is as follows:  Upon seeing her husband’s creation, Mrs. Muller fell in love with the horse. So much so that even after her death, her ghost returned to the Cedar Point Carousel to ride it.  In fact, her love was so strong that her ghost would make it impossible for anyone to photograph the horse, lest someone else view it and fall in love with it. The Museum has a replica of this horse and people say sometimes they can hear her walking around the place at night to admire the beauty of this unique steed. We have had countless stories from both patrons, employees and paranormal investigators about hearing what sounds like a little girl giggling and running around the museum.  A few people have reported their jacket or shirt being tugged on as if there was a invisible child.  There have also been stories of whispers of a little girl into the ears of carvers and painters when they are in the workshop in the basement alone as well as hearing the footsteps running around and the shirt tugs. She seems to be a very playful spirit who we believe may be attached to one of the pieces we have in the basement that has been donated. You can see in the picture a small footprint that appeared on the seat of a bike in the dust shortly after we started to get reports of paranormal experiences with her. The surroundings continue to build up dust but the footprint looks like it was just done. We discovered the footprint in 2012 and it looks the same today as the day we found it.  There have been sightings of a older man randomly walking around the museum. A few employees have heard the jingle of keys thoughout the halls and upstairs at night. Occasionally you can even hear what sounds like footsteps on the base of the carousel!  Rumor has it that while cleaning in what is now the Archives he had a heart attack and passed away.  We have tried to get information from the post office here in town but everyone that worked in this building has since retired so we have no name nor a year/date when he passed away.