I feel like my experience was a Mandela Effect with how mirrored my memories were of the place, on…read moretop of the scenery changing so much over the years. I wish more of the historic buildings were either cleaned and open, or memorialized for viewers to really get a full experience of history walking into these refineries.

We had a good time learning about the history of the Copper Basin. There was a short movie and then…read morethe friendly curators spent time talking with you about the artifacts and history of the area and mines.

Stopped in after hiking at Tallulah Gorge state park. It's about a 15 min drive from there and…read moretucked away, not able to see from the road. I thought the set up of the museum and tour were fantastic. I happened on a day when a school was touring and they had a working blacksmith and musician. The exhibits in the cabin are fantastic and the artifacts are well displayed. I liked that the tour takes you on a trail to each cabin so you get a bit of a workout. They had a nice gift shop and clean bathrooms. Tour took me about 90 minutes. Only thing I would caution is to make sure you can walk on slightly steep inclines. I also liked that while it focused on Appalachian culture it didn't shy away from highlighting the impact of the Indian Removal Pact that impacted the region. Highly recommend.

Interesting history and structures. Nice gifts hopefully and very informative and friendly staffread more

BLUF: A very impressive collection of Lionel model trains including a train layout with a few…read moretrains running. Although I like to joke that I am an LGB G scale purist, I was impressed by this collection of model trains which are mostly O gauge trains from Lionel. The display cases are nicely displayed and labeled and the plexi-glass was super clean. Plus, this is a massive collection! While many people will enjoy watching the trains zip around the large layout and pushing the buttons for the interactive layout, my husband loved looking for items from the B&O railroad while I enjoyed looking at models of my favorite locomotives. It was really cool to see models in this collection of some of the greats like Norfolk and Western J-611 and Union Pacific "Big Boy." For kids the museum offers a scavenger hunt but I think my husband and I would have had fun doing that ourselves! Admission to the museum is included with a train ride on the GSMR. We were able to visit the museum the day before our train ride by showing our ticket to the staff at the gift shop. We appreciated their flexibility in letting us visit the museum a day ahead of our train ride so we weren't rushed.

Very cool place especially if you love trains.. lots and lots of history in trains from different…read moreplaces and toy models you can see.. very interesting to learn and speak to employees.. I love watching the trains.. there is huge display you can walk around see something different from different angles..

This place is a real hidden treasure. This huge model train museum/exhibit started out as three…read morehobbyists' escape. It features a walk-through representation of the surrounding area including Brasstown Bald (Georgia's highest peak), Blairsville, Cleveland, Dahlonega, Gainesville, and parts of Atlanta. The tour includes a brief history of the model train and then a walk through of the train exhibit.

Horribly run business. We checked the website for hours, which confirmed that they are open for…read moretours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1:30. We drove for over 45 minutes with an excited toddler to see the railroad, only to find that it was closed with no notice. Three cars were waiting outside, with several children left disappointed. If it's too much hassle to update their website, they could at least leave a note on the door indicating that they are closed.

Came to Brasstown Bald Observation Tower for the views and it was a sight to see! It's not everyday…read more(at least where I live) that you can stand in such a high place and be able to see mountains spanning across 4 different states. The entry fee was 8 per adult (kids are free) which also includes a van ride to the overlook. Or you can choose to hike which wasn't a long hike but steep from what I saw. A must do for anyone visiting the area! Ohh... and make sure you watch the little movie at the top, it's very cool to see how one place is its own little world in different seasons and the history behind the place.

The current Brasstown Bald observation tower was built in 1965, replacing an earlier stone tower…read morethat was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935. The original 1935 stone tower was torn down in 1947 and replaced with a steel tower before the current structure was built - we'll folks looks like it's time to build another tower this one is in a state of disrepair. I came here to observe 4 states from the highest point in Georgia, but apparently the observation tower is in such bad shape that it is now closed to the public and your adventure will end after climbing a few flights of stairs ending at the base of the observation deck yeah there's a view from the lower level but in my opinion not worth the price of admission. Thankfully there's a shuttle van that takes you from the parking lot level to the top it runs about ever 10 minutes, our driver was very friendly and tried his best to entertain us during the short drive to the top but there's not much to say - the museum at the top is okay and takes about 2 minutes to tour it then time you walk the lower deck and wait for the shuttle back down - I purchased a refrigerator magnet for the RV from the gift shop and headed for the truck. I guess I am fortunate that I came and saw this, although it was never on my bucket list, I'm still trying to figure out why there's an old train engine in the museum it's quite the anachronism...

Very nice museum. Not many original and old artifacts as you would expect. Alot of recent…read moreinformation etc.

On our recent visit to Great Smoky Mountains, husband decided to come here since we were in the…read morearea, and it was an interesting pit stop! We were able to secure admission tickets via Viator, which meant we could use our Viator credits to buy tickets! Woohoo. The experience was informative, educational, but a bit underwhelming. We're glad the Cherokee people are able to maintain their history thru this museum, and we even brought home a souvenir from their gift shop. It's worth a visit if you happen to be in the area, and there's a burger restaurant down the road from the museum that serves delicious burgers with a view of the river!

A interesting mind provocative experience for things that go bump in the night. I was surprised by…read morethe level of evidence and thought put into the experience. Definite a must stop to scratch that itch. Well done.

Definitely an interesting experience. Totally worth the $9 ticket. Only complaint is that we wished…read morethere was a tour guide. Thankfully there was a true believer who was there at the same time as we were so we were able to listen to his fun facts.

Very underwhelming, for a city known for tourism this is probably the lamest science center I've…read morebeen to. It's like 3 rooms total, all of them in basically the same space, there's probably a whole like 4 or 5 things for the kids to do that they can probably do within 30 minutes. The admission price should be like $5 for what it's worth. The lady at the front told me there was a bunch of hands on activities for babies and I'd say there was like three. The first room was a tiny room with a virtual earth, that if you touch the screen it says it will move but it doesn't work, everything else in that room is just reading/writing (made for tweens and up) and not very fun or engaging. Then there's a room full of rocks behind glass displays, not very exciting or hands on for kids (even as an adult, I felt like it was boring). There's one little section in the room where the kids can brush sand off rocks, but it was nothing special. The room with the bikes is the coolest room, but it's very small and like I said there's barely anything to do. You can look at different bikes on display, they have like 2 or 3 interactive things you can do to learn about how bikes work which take a minute to do. The there's a tiny jungle gym kind of thing that's sub-par, a water play area that's also sub-par and a sand pit where you can look for fossils which I guess would have been fun if my child was a bit older, but for little ones like mine, there wasn't much. He had a very tiny section in the corner he could play with and then he got bored. I guess I'm a bit spoiled because we live in the Triad and we have 3 of the best children's museums. It's guess it's a good thing to do to kill time if you literally have nothing else to do with your kids in Asheville but if I knew what it would be like I probably wouldn't do it again.

Tiny but mighty! There are a few rooms here with interactive exhibits for kids. My 4 and 5 year…read moreolds could have spent a lot of time here even though at times it felt a little tight. There's a small climbing structure that my kids kept coming back to, which was a favorite. A lot of the exhibits focused on the earth. I think it was sort of lost on my kids, but the exhibits were fun to interact with. You can't really avoid the shop.