# What's the worst museum you've ever been to? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881 "2025-10-11T16:20:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/121 "2025-10-15T16:57:59Z")
I’ve been to museums at both ends of the Manhattan Project - Bradbury in Los Alamos, and the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima. It was interesting to see the varying perspectives on essentially the same event. While on that road trip to Los Alamos, though, we went to the saddest museum ever. It was a dinosaur museum in Grants, New Mexico. Bear in mind that this was nearly 30 years ago, and it looks like the museum in question - and a questionable museum it was - is gone. IIRC, though, the main feature of the museum was what could only be described as a large sandbox in which ‘fossils’ were buried for kids to dig up. The whole place, sandbox and all, wasn’t much bigger than a three-car garage with attached shop. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/122 "2025-10-15T17:29:35Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In the same camp (but Mormon rather than creationist) is the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. They do everything to hide the fact that the Center is a wholly owned enterprise of the LDS Church until you get inside. I wonder when that happened? I was there in ~1970 and that almost certainly wasn’t true then. I know nothing after that. > [@beowulff](#): > > You never forget your first Date shake. No you don’t; Hadley’s was (is?) great. It helped that I was a SoCal kid and had been eating dates as snacks since I could chew solid food. I’d imagine that in the late 1970s dates were rarely fed to kids in MN. ETA: Hadley’s yet lives: > **[Hadley Fruit Orchards – Commitment to Excellence Since 1931](https://hadleyfruitorchards.com/)** Way back in the day there were a lot of date orchards down in Indio. And data stands, and date souvenirs, and date … ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/123 "2025-10-15T17:38:46Z")
When I was a kid we went to Petrified Creatures in Warren, NY (technically Richfield Springs, NY, but i said “Warren” in the pennant I bought as a kid). It was one of the oldest Big Statues of Dinosaur Parks anywhere. There was a sliver of justification for its being there – there were some footprint fossils in a rock shelf there. They built some incredibly crude dinosaurs out of chicken wire and wood and concrete and painted them in unlikely colors. I returned decades later as an adult to see that the T-rex was propped up with a construction of wood under his chin, and the bronotosaurus’ neck had collapsed down to the ground. But it was still there. Everything in the gift shop was coated with a thick layer of dust. A few years later I saw on the internet that it had been fixed up somewhat. The dinosaurs looked a bit better, with some of the bracing removed. Now it’s closed, since 2016, and has deteriorated since [roadsideamerica.com/tip/967](http://roadsideamerica.com/tip/967) > **[GONE EXTINCT: Inside the Abandoned Petrified Creatures in Richfield Springs](https://wour.com/petrified-creatures/)** > > An exclusive look at the abandoned Petrified Creatures museum in Richfield Springs. > **[This Is One Of New York's Forgotten Roadside Attractions, The Abandoned...](https://q1057.com/this-is-one-of-new-yorks-forgotten-roadside-attractions-the-abandoned-creatures-museum/)** > > Abandoned in New York. WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. It was never a great museum, but it got sadder as it got older. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/124 "2025-10-15T17:40:43Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > The aunt and uncle were quite disappointed that none of us kids wanted to try a date shake I’m getting the squirts just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/125 "2025-10-15T17:53:16Z")
I wouldn’t say it is bad, but a bit specialized: the butter museum in Cork, Ireland. > **[Home - The Butter Museum](https://thebuttermuseum.com/)** We actually found it quite interesting, though it is obviously rather heavily slanted towards Kerrygold, who I assume are its sponsor. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/126 "2025-10-15T18:03:26Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Add in Four Corners. Also middle of nowhere. You can say you were in four states at the same time. That’s about it. Oh yeah. Lots of people hawking stuff. And as a GIS person I thought the 4 corners would be cool, but there is some question if it’s really not quite the right spot. Lat and Long wise. Everything is questioned that way. I was very “Ho hum” Kinda cool, but really not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/127 "2025-10-15T18:07:32Z")
Back when I first moved to Arizona, the thing to do was to go there at night, and pee on four states at once… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/128 "2025-10-15T18:43:55Z")
Really? Because the possibility of having sex in four states at once suggests something completely different to me. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/129 "2025-10-15T18:45:35Z")
Not with all that pee on the ground… ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/130 "2025-10-15T18:58:40Z")
Good bet 99% of the pee-ers are male. Good bet about half the sex participants would need to be female. Getting women to do dumb shit in public has always been much harder than getting men of the same age to do dumb shit. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/131 "2025-10-15T19:32:03Z")
Worst museum experience was trying to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin. You go in groups on a tour of the library, ending up in the room containing the Book of Kells in a display case in the center of the room. We couldn’t get up to the display case until most of our tour group was finished looking, at which time the next tour group arrived and proceeded to elbow their way to the front and pushing us back again. Waited one more cycle and the same thing happened, so we left without really getting a look at the thing. A little crowd control around the display case would have been appreciated. I agree with the others about the Louvre; we went at a time of year that wasn’t terribly crowded except for the Mona Lisa, which was pretty much meh anyway, Actually the whole museum paled in comparison to the Musee D’Orsey, the Orangerie (Monet water lilies), the Rodin Museum, and the Musee Marmotton (Monet museum). Certainly just down to my particular taste in art. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In the same camp (but Mormon rather than creationist) is the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. They do everything to hide the fact that the Center is a wholly owned enterprise of the LDS Church until you get inside. Worst guided tour I’ve been on was the Mormon Tabernacle in SLC. Only tour that I’ve ever bailed out on in the middle. Such and incredible level of bullshit delivered by guides who were such true believers I could swear their eyes were glowing. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/132 "2025-10-15T19:32:06Z")
Grants now has this. The website doesn’t have much, but it does have the potential to be more interesting than what you saw. > **[Home - New Mexico Mining Museum](https://newmexicominingmuseum.org/)** ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/133 "2025-10-15T19:38:09Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I wonder when that happened? I was there in ~1970 and that almost certainly wasn’t true then. I know nothing after that. Was it not owned by the LDS Church or was it not hidden that it was owned by the LDS church? ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/134 "2025-10-15T19:41:53Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > there is some question if it’s really not quite the right spot. Lat and Long wise. This is the case with the huge “[Middle of the World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Mitad_del_Mundo)” monument near Quito – it was thought to be on the Equator when it was built back in the 1930s, but according to modern GPS measurements it’s actually about 240 meters south of the Equator. There’s still a line down the middle of the plaza that says “Lat 0°” even though it really isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/135 "2025-10-15T19:46:16Z")
Sorry to be unclear. As best I recall, there was zero evidence of any Mormon connection. If they owned it, they sure weren’t using it as a way of advertising themselves. Which, I assume, would be the only reason they would own such a thing is to use the captive audience for their own sales purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/136 "2025-10-15T19:54:08Z")
The Center was built by the LDS in 1963. Every island village “exhibit” has detailed histories of the first Mormon missionaries to arrive in each part of the Pacific. There is an LDS temple onsite and no coffee of carbonated beverages are served. The staff is almost entirely recruited from BYU’s Hawaii campus. I knew none of this before entering the gates. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/137 "2025-10-15T20:08:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Which, I assume, would be the only reason they would own such a thing is to use the captive audience for their own sales purposes. The Center brings in $100+ per visitor. Seems reason enough to me. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/138 "2025-10-15T20:20:20Z")
Color me edumacated. I had no idea. I sure don’t remember the exhibits being LDS oriented or displaying LDS boosterism. I was just a tween then, but my parents were pretty vociferously anti-religious in general and anti-Mormon in particular, and even if I didn’t notice they sure would have. And would have been quite likely to comment, if not on-site then at least to us kids later. Still and all, your facts overrule my vague recollections. Thanks for making the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/139 "2025-10-15T20:29:07Z")
I didn’t immediately clue into it either. If you didn’t stop to read the histories of each village and missed the temple on the map, your only clue would have been the big notices in the luau area about coffee, soda, and alcohol being prohibited. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881/140 "2025-10-15T20:38:36Z")
Aaah, stealth Mormons. Not really rationally objectionable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-museum-youve-ever-been-to/1023881.md?page=8)