The Best Offbeat Museums in the West

If you’re a devoted road tripper, one thing you’ll quickly realize is there’s a museum out there for everyone—especially in the West, where folks often go to be their quirkiest, kookiest, most out-there selves. You may have already heard of weird-but-well-known spots like the Mob Museum, Musée Mécanique, and the Neon Museum. But if you really want to shake up your usual tourism routine, try these offbeat and off-the-beaten-path institutions, which tackle quirky topics in surprising locations. 

The Liberace Garage in Las Vegas

It’s hard to stand out in a place like Las Vegas, but if anyone could do it, it’s Władziu Valentino Liberace. Better known as Liberace, the pianist ruled Vegas nightlife for the latter half of the 20th century with his lavish, over-the-top stage productions. His performances often involved him emerging from blinged-out vehicles, which are on full display in a fabulous collection of Liberace-mobiles (and candelabras) at the Liberace Garage, which itself is just one part of the Hollywood Cars Museum. Various tour types are available, so it’s best to book in advance through the museum's website.

SFO Museum in San Francisco

The SFO Museum itself isn’t that weird—it’s the location that will surprise you. Tucked away in a quiet corner of the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport is a dedicated aviation museum and library, a small but dazzling space devoted to aviation history and preservation. Featuring a series of hanging airplanes and rotating exhibits that highlight commercial aviation through the years, it’s both paradise for transportation nerds and a good way to kill time before your flight. There are also photography, art, and artifact displays scattered throughout the entire airport, so no matter which wing you’re departing from, you’ll be sure to leave with some inspiration.

National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming

The animal world has been a popular subject for visual art since the beginning of the practice. In Jackson Hole, there’s a museum dedicated to it, covering the history of depicting our four-legged friends in art form, especially in North America. Housed in a dramatic building inspired by a Scottish castle, the collection holds works from naturalist masters like Audubon and O’Keeffe, but also more unexpected entries from artists like Warhol and Picasso. Appropriately, the museum overlooks an elk refuge—perhaps to give visitors a little inspiration of their own.

McGill Drugstore Museum in McGill, Nevada 

Drugstores used to do much more than dispense medication and provide last-minute lipstick replacements. For many small towns, they were a one-stop shop for prescriptions, everyday products, and a treat from the soda fountain. The McGill Drugstore Museum is a frozen-in-time Rexall drugstore that pays tribute to the drugstores of yore. Today, you can browse the aisles full of vintage health and beauty items, poke around behind the soda fountain, and leaf through real prescriptions written for people in the town more than 50 years ago. It’s open 10 a.m to 3 p.m., Thursday through Sunday.

World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana

Mining is how Montana made its name. This is especially true in Butte, an area that contains several pits of precious materials. At the World Museum of Mining, guests enter an immersive world of bygone Butte, showing what life was like for the citizens that once made Montana an industrial powerhouse. You can peruse artifact exhibitions modeling of town businesses and buildings, and you can also book a tour of an actual decommissioned underground mine. Advance booking is highly recommended for the underground tour (which, as you might expect, requires close-toed shoes).

Burger King Navajo Code Talkers Display and Navajo Shadehouse Museum in Kayenta, Arizona

Hidden in an unassuming fast-food spot in northern Arizona, there’s a display honoring the Navajo Code Talkers, a special team of Marines who used their native Navajo language to deliver secret messages in the Pacific theater of World War II. Containing memorabilia and information about the Code Talkers, the exhibit was installed by the restaurant’s owner, who is the son of one of the Code Talkers honored in the exhibit. But the experience doesn’t end there: When you’re done with your Whopper, there’s a larger museum outside dedicated to Navajo history and culture.

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California

Originally established in 1930—though its current iteration opened in 1966—the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is a collection of Egyptian antiquities in the Rose Garden district of San Jose. It’s locally beloved, with many intriguing features for kids and curious adults. You can get up close with preserved mummies or walk through a life-size model of an Egyptian tomb, and budding Indiana Joneses can get in on special programs designed for children. As the complex is on the grounds of the headquarters of a Rosicrucian fraternal order, there is also a room dedicated to the practice of Rosicrucian alchemy, plus a lovely, lush garden that’s open to the public.

Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska

You might think this was a museum named after a founder who bore the last name Hammer (as in Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, a world-class collection of fine art). Nope—it is, literally, a museum devoted to the humble construction tool. Since 2002, this Hammer Museum has been educating the public on the history of the hammer, which provides a surprisingly compelling window into human development and ingenuity. Here you can marvel at over 2,000 hammers, from a Tlingit warrior’s pick to more modern models. And literally, you can’t miss it: There’s a 20-foot-tall hammer out front heralding its presence.

Little Hollywood Movie Museum in Kanab, Utah

Did you know southern Utah stood in for the Wild West in many early movies? As the wilds of Los Angeles were being developed to serve the growing film industry, a new location was needed to make westerns since, ironically, L.A. was becoming too populated to pass as the “untamed West.” Enter, Kanab, Utah: From the 1920s to the present day, scores of films have been shot in this small town with brush-covered landscapes and dramatic, colorful cliffs that look great on screen. At the Little Hollywood Movie Museum, you can browse old sets and memorabilia and learn about how filmmakers create movie magic. It’s located in a travel stop and admission is free.