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Fun and Weird Museums
From the weird to the wonderful, Portland’s specialty museums offer a wide range of exhibits, from educational displays to curious collections and even exhibitions devoted to alternate universes.
Portland’s many weird and wonderful museums vary in scale, from sidewalk-sized to fine art to collections spanning multiple warehouses, and they all share one thing in common: passion.
Weird Museums
Step inside the Portland Puppet Museum in Sellwood to see an exhibit hall stuffed with hand puppets, marionettes and joined figures of all types and sizes. Exhibits rotate every four months and display parts of the museum’s extensive collection of 2,000 puppets, often featuring small-screen classics like Howdy Doody or Mister Roger’s Neighborhood and puppets from different historical and folk traditions. Each weekend, the museum hosts family-friendly workshops and — of course — puppet shows. Fun fact: it’s one of the only museums in the nation dedicated to the history and art of puppetry.
For those interested in creepy crawlies and critters, the Portland Insectarium is a family-friendly bug zoo and museum dedicated to insects, arachnids and arthropods. Created as a pop-up insect zoo, the Insectarium now displays hundreds of bugs in its Sellwood location. In addition to displays, visitors can go on bug walks through the park, attend educational workshops and even hold beetles, isopods and tarantulas (by appointment only.)
The North American Bigfoot Center — also known as the “Bigfoot Museum” — is located in Boring, Oregon and is a perfect roadside stop on a trip from Portland to Mount Hood. The museum’s displays focus on research into the famously elusive cryptid, with plaster casts of footprints, eyewitness accounts and infrared photography.
Credit: Amy Lam
The Morrison Street Minigallery is a pint-sized tribute to Portland’s culture of “sidewalk joy,” the hundreds of tiny displays, free or trade item boxes and little free libraries dot the city’s streets. Parked outside of a home in Belmont, the Morrison Street Minigallery features a monthly rotating set of tiny exhibitions from local artists. You never know what you might find — past exhibitions have included a display of inch-high photographs of Portland’s iconic bridges in ornate frames, an installation of tiny ceramic creatures nestled in colorful moss and flowers, and an intricate forest fire and watch tower scene made from cut paper.
Interesting Collections
What happens when you spend a lifetime collecting something? You build a museum, of course! That’s what happened with this hidden gem in Hillsboro, about 25 minutes outside of Portland: the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals. This museum houses a collection of 20,000 rock and mineral specimens dating back to the 1930s inside a sprawling, mid-century, ranch-style house. The house was built specifically to hold this collection and is listed on America’s National Register of Historic Places for its unique architectural style and stonework. Inside, the collections include incredible samples of gemstones, fossils, petrified wood, and more. Check out the Rainbow Gallery, which houses glow-in-the-dark phosphorescent and fluorescent rocks and minerals.
Want to learn about the history of vacuum cleaners? Pop into Stark’s Vacuum Museum, a display inside the Stark’s Vacuums store. You’ll be able to peep at more than 100 vacuums, including hand-pumped machines from before electricity and Depression-era vacuums made from budget-friendly cardboard.
There’s a reason that the Next Level Pinball Shop & Museum in Hillsboro (about 25 minutes from Portland) has been voted the best pinball venue in the world for several years in a row: it’s packed with several warehouses’ worth of pinball tables and arcade machines from every era. You can wander all day in its massive 27,000 square feet (2,508 sq. m.) venue, whose technicolor walls are lined with pop culture memorabilia like vintage toys, posters and lunchboxes. The best part? Once you’ve bought your ticket, you can play any of the more than 650 arcade cabinets or pinball tables as much as you like — they’re all set to “free play” mode. Stay for an hour or all day and level up your skills.
Movie Madness Video, the iconic video rental store on Hawthorne, keeps the dream of the 90s alive with its rentable catalog of over 80,000 DVDs, including new releases and rare titles, but that’s not all; visitors can find a collection of film memorabilia like costumes and props from famous Hollywood films like “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” “Psycho,” “Gremlins,” “Fight Club” and “Pulp Fiction.” Highlights that will delight film buffs include a cast of the falcon statue from “The Maltese Falcon” and a screen-used prosthetic ear from “Blue Velvet” (featuring some of director David Lynch’s actual hair).
Cabinets of Curiosity
Throughout history, people have gathered interesting collections of natural history objects for display. These exhibitions continue this curious human tradition by presenting interesting, beautiful, and unusual objects and relics.
The Zymoglphyic Museum is a DIY museum in the Mount Tabor neighborhood, hosted in the space over a residential garage. It presents “relics of the Zymoglyphic age,” sculptures and dioramas of fictional creatures created by artist Jim Stewart made from found objects like driftwood and skulls. Hard to define? Yes, a bit — it’s a strange and fascinating display that must be seen to be understood. Visitors note: the museum is on a second story with stair access only.
Credit: Todd Mecklem
The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium is another eclectic Portland gem inspired by old exhibiting traditions like roadside attractions. It calls itself an “anti-museum” since everything inside is created or collected by a group of artists united by a shared interest in things like Americana kitsch, cryptozoology and a playful spirit. Inside, you can pose as part of an alien autopsy, peer inside a haunted dollhouse and check out strange sculptures, drawings and more. (Admission is free if you wear a costume or bring a pet.)
For the more gothically minded, every day is Halloween at the Skeleton Key Odditorium, a 2,500-square-foot (762 sq. m) self-guided museum displaying all things macabre and spooky. The museum focuses on unusual human history, and displays include rare books, Victorian mourning jewelry, circus memorabilia, and — of course — bones.
Cool History
At the Historic Belmont Firehouse & Safety Learning Center, visitors experience a variety of fun and educational topics, including learning about antique equipment like different water pumps and hand tools, the firehouse fire pole and the “Fire Engine Experience” emergency response simulator.
Please note that tours are available only by request and must be scheduled at least two weeks before a visit date.
Credit: Ashley Anderson
Hearken back to Portland’s maritime history with a visit to the historic sternwheeler “Portland,” which houses the Oregon Maritime Museum. Learn about the turn-of-the-century technology that powered the last steam-powered sternwheel tug in the United States with a tour of the steamer, the pilot house and the engine room. Check out ship models, maritime artifacts, and displays about steam power, sailing vessels, and the liberty ships of World War II.
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, in McMinnville, Oregon, about an hour from Portland, is home to the Spruce Goose, the largest wooden airplane ever built. With a wingspan of 320 feet (97.5 m), it’s the showcase in the exhibition, and you can tour its cockpit, but visitors will also want to check out several other planes and space museum exhibitions like a life-size replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander and Rover. Make a day of it at the Wings and Waves Waterpark next door, where kids and families play in pools and water slides next to helicopter and space shuttle decor.
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