This is such a neat place!! We went here for a field trip with our homeschool group. There's so…read moremuch to see and everything is set up beautifully!! The employees are helpful and kind. The museum is free which I thought was really nice.

I'm a big glass aficionado, but usually in a much different way. Our fam' is from Buffalo NY, and a…read morefavorite hobby of mine is treasure hunting for beach glass on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Walking into the Museum of American Glass during our recent holiday road trip to WV, my initial reaction was--"THROW IT ALL IN THE LAKE!!" :-O :-P ;-) But of course, not really, hahaha. That would be a tragedy, as this museum is FULL of SO MUCH beautiful glass!! It is free admission to explore the many aisles of absolutely gorgeous, intricate glass pieces, some of which were manufactured right there in Weston WV. Case after case after case showcases different glass producers. You'll see many usable pieces like dishes, teacups, vases, and pitchers. Then there are tons of purely decorative pieces too, glass statues in all colors, shapes and sizes. I ADORE cobalt blue glass (I used thrifted pieces I found to decorate our wedding centerpieces, I LOVE IT so much!), and there were several cases dedicated to my favorite blue hue. I was also particularly fond of the case of two-piece glass hen-shaped covered dishes in a rainbow of colors, some swirled milk glass. There are also displays about the glass manufacturing process itself. In the back there is some of the machinery used, as well as giant hunks of raw slag glass. I had to drop to my knees to hug one of those big bad boys, as if I ever found anything like that in the lake I would keel over! :-O One other absolutely INCREDIBLE piece on display is a HUGE glass dollhouse. Well, a HUGE glass doll MANSION!! It is really an amazing piece of art, from the unbelievable glass house itself, to the fully staged inside with furniture pieces meticulously placed and styled. Taking zoomed-in photos of the rooms of the house, it almost looks like a real house, the miniature pieces are so true-to-life in their design! The museum also has a gift shop that consists of a large assortment of glass pieces for sale. There were so many lovely items in the gift shop, it is like another display area of the museum in and of itself! My teen daughter, also a glass lover, purchased a beautiful red glass teacup and saucer for herself, and a red glass votive candle holder. I bought a beautiful mint green two-piece bunny dish, a gorgeous bubblegum pink pedestal foot bowl, and a gift for my parents, a teal glass insulator. The bunny now resides in my grandmother's shadow box. The pink glass bowl is filled with walnuts on my dining room table, and my parents loved their insulator. They are also glass hunters, and much of the teal glass that comes out of the lakes is from blown insulators. WOW, what an absolute TREAT it was stumbling on the Museum of American Glass in adorable Weston WV on our road trip. The town itself is super cute, with a nice coffee shop (The Coffee House), other cute shopping (check out Appalachian Oddities!), a few eateries, plus a huge historical asylum that has ghost tours, if you are into that sort of thing. I LOVED exploring the Museum of American Glass, and if I ever find myself back in Weston, I would definitely stop in again, so much to see SPARKLE and SHINE! :-D

This was my second time at Trans-Allegheny and it truly never disappoints! The first time I went,…read moremy mom, dad, and I did the 4 floor 90 minute tour. We were the only ones on the tour, which truly made it an even better experience! This time, my mom, aunt, and I did the First Floor North and South tours. The South tour was given to us by Madison and she was a fantastic tour guide! She provided us with so much information and some information we did not hear on our first tour there! We were also the only ones on this tour, which was nice. The second tour of the day was the North tour and this tour is new to the asylum! It opened this year and it gives insight as to where the criminally insane patients were housed after the Criminally Insane Building was shut down. This tour was given to us by Jasmine and she was amazing as well! This tour was a group, but it was still very interesting! I am looking forward to going back for an overnight tour and/or the haunted house!! Highly recommend!

Easily one of the best tours I've ever taken…read more I knew this would need to be part of our WV itinerary as soon as this place's existence became known to me while I was planning a possible trip. Just the name is enough to grab you but it certainly delivers. The thought of doing a paranormal tour intrigued me but I was also interested in the history. We arrived at 2:20 and were informed the paranormal tour wasn't starting until 4. Did we really want to wait until 4?! The very nice man provided descriptions of all of the tours and the paranormal one just sounded so interesting that it didn't seem like a real debate. We bought tickets and were considering how we would kill time but it turns out, they have a very interesting museum about the place's history on the first floor that someone entertained my ADHD ass until 3:55. It was incredible. As if that couldn't get any better, the tour was absolutely fascinating. We were taken throughout the museum and our guide, Brad, was impressively knowledgeable about the place, answered every question in exquisite detail. The only disappointment was that instead of experiencing anything paranormal, we were just told stories about things other people have experienced. Don't get me wrong, this was captivating but I was hoping to experience something for myself which I did not. An absolute must visit if you are interested in this kind of shit and are anywhere remotely in the vicinity.

We recently road-tripped our way from Buffalo NY down to WV for no better reason than to visit a…read morenew place together. We stayed in Bridgeport WV, about a half hour from Weston WV, where Appalachian Oddities is located. Weston WV has many paranormal ties, including a huge historical asylum that dovetails with civil war history, too. So a mystic shop like Appalachian Oddities fits right in here in Weston. When we first walked in, we actually weren't sure if it was a shop or a museum, as the entry vestibule is staged so well as an undead parlor, haha. But we were soon warmly greeted by the shop owner, and welcomed inside to take a look around. Appalachian Oddities is inside a repurposed house that still has much of the original footprint and charm. So each area of the store is in a different room of the house, with lots of peculiar gifts to explore in each space. I ended up purchasing a couple gifts here, one a prayer-style candle for my horror-movie-loving brother that had a Freddy Krueger design on it. I also purchased a necklace for my daughter that had a lovely etched wood raven pendant. Our twelve-year old son went to town here with his Christmas money, and bought a board game called "Pandemic", and a local artist print of a painting of the Joker, Jauqiun Phoenix's rendition. As it turns out, the asylum in Weston is a short-listed film location for the next Joker movie. In addition to the shop, Appalachian Oddities has an escape room attraction. We did not participate in the escape room when we were there, but did see a family going in, and could overhear the screams, scares, and fun coming out of the escape room. I overheard the cost was $25 per person, and the people going through seemed to be having a great time well worth the cost. My husband spent some time chatting with the very friendly owner, who also runs a paranormal enthusiast group out of their meeting space in the back of the store. The group ghost hunts together in the area, and have had some intriguing close encounters! If you live in this area and are interested in paranormal sightings, definitely check out this group. If you are visiting Weston WV for the asylum tour or any of the other area attractions related to the mysterious unknown, (i.e., ghosts, aliens, cryptids, etc.), Appalachian Oddities is a great gift shop stop! Even if ghouls aren't your thing, it is still fun to stop in for a peek at the paranormal.

The owner is an absolute sweet heart and the staff is just as kind and knowledgeable! They have a…read morewide variety of strange and unusual items and it's definitely worth stopping in and checking out! They host many events and even do in house tarot readings.

We stumbled on this terrific small museum during a return trip from Virginia to Pittsburgh. They…read morehad amazing propaganda posters of women in the military. They had many unique ww2 uniforms from Germany, Canada, us, japan. Ive attached some pics to entice others to stop by at this hidden gem. The docent was knowledgable and friendly. They had a donation based cafe. We ordered take out and they slipped in some extra pie for us. Thank you! We ve added the living history event in June to our calendar.

We loved this tour! It's only $12, and we were treated to a video introduction and then a private…read moretour of the house with tons of information about when it was originally built and also about the latest renovation. Everyone we dealt with was so friendly and knowledgeable. We would love to go back and see it decked out for Christmas!

I've lived in Marietta for 35 years and this was my first visit. Was always thinking I'd do it…read morelater when guests came. Why did I wait! It was so enjoying to hear about the house and its history. It's a great gem for our small historic town.

This place is a great stop for information and souvenirs! There are tons of foot and hand casts,…read morestories, and all big foot gifts for family and friends! They even have a reading room in the back where you can cozy up on the couch with a book.

The diminutive but fun West Virginia Bigfoot Museum isn't always open, so check the days of…read moreoperation. It's a small museum tucked away, part of a space that also has a cafe and a gift shop. And admission is free. The Bigfoot Museum itself is probably about 1/3 museum (photos of Bigfoot, some information, copies of reliefs of footprints, charts, and so forth) and 2/3 Bigfoot paraphernalia and gifts, t-shirts and knick-knacks, all done in good fun. I don't know that Bigfoot has actually been sighted in WV, but with all the cryptids in the area, who cares? It's all part of the fun. And if you are into cryptids, you're in luck since the Flatwoods Monster Museum is a block away. Even better, the cafe in the same space is super friendly and serves things such as mini-pepperoni rolls with marinara sauce. How can you go wrong?

My husband, sister and I did the self-tour this morning and enjoyed learning as we went. Chris the…read morehost was most kind and helpful. My sister and I spent our youth living in Beverly and I've been fond of the history and the people. Well done Beverly Historical Society or whomever is working to bring the past to life for others to learn, well done. We also bought lots of yum yums from the Farmers Market, such good food, highly recommend stopping and buying some fresh vegetables and baked goods, support local farms.

This museum is known for its Civil War history, but it offers so much more! For just $5 you can…read moretour 4 different restored historic buildings with four permanent exhibits on food and daily life, frontier travel, the courthouse "war" with Elkins, and yes, the early days of the Civil War. There are many temporary exhibits too, so it's worth coming back again. Besides the museum, they offer lots of free visitor information on other things to do like walking tours, brochures, and directions to other historic sites. Free WIFI and bathroom too!

Super friendly staff. Took our picture and let us check out the handmade lanterns they sell. Fun…read morephoto op and a Monster Chair just around the corner with an iron bridge where you can spot fish. All in all, a superb way to get off the Interstate for a small leg stretch. We incorporated a stop at The Custard Stand (Yummo) just down the road and purchased their frozen hot dog chili (featured on Shark Tank).

This is another place where it is what you make of it. If you like weird, strange, and odd things…read morelike cryptids then you might as well make the stop. Otherwise, this is not that amazing of a stop and there isn't much else to do here. The day we arrived pretty much every other thing was closed. Luckily there is no fee for the museum because there honestly isn't much to see. I love cryptids and monsters and stuff like that and just thought it was ok.

Upon arriving, we realized that the door was locked. However, after ringing the doorbell, we were…read morewarmly greeted and ushered inside the Historical Society building. Upon entering, we were asked to sign the guestbook and were quickly told about the books and other items that were for sale, and as we signed the guestbook, the gentleman that let us in quickly stated, "Hi I am David and I am your tour guide". We did not know that there was a tour guide, as we thought this was going to be a self guided program where we could look around at our own pace. At that time my wife and daughter started to have a small conversation very quietly to themselves and walked away not to interrupt and very nice lady came in and said you all need to stick together and can't walk around separate. Knowing my wife and my daughter are not into history as much as I am, didn't feel any awkwardness in the fact that they wanted to have a private conversation and look at what interested them so when they were told we had to stay together, they decided it was best for them to go to the antique store next-door and hook up with me after I was done. So that's what we did and I continued to walk around with David, listening to the different stories and explanations of the artifacts located throughout the museum. David was very knowledgeable and very friendly, and told me that he had served 20 years in the Armed Forces, and had met several of the notables that we were talking about, including Mr. Buckles who was the oldest World War I survivor. The only reason I've not given this review 5 stars is that every time I asked David to extrapolate on his information he would say, "I don't know". I asked where he got the data on the American people not wanting peace via the League of Nations in WWI after some discussion of a really cool document showing Woodrow Wilson, his response, "I don't know", that went on through the various rooms until we went upstairs. Upon asking David about the banisters, flooring and wall trim and whether they were original to the 1912 house and getting the same, "I don't t know" decided to let him stick with the information memorized and not ask any more questions, as I felt I was beginning to annoy my tour guide. I felt a little like one of Stonewall Jackson's students at VMI when asking the professor to explain what he just said, having Jackson stop, go back, repeating verbatim what he just mentioned from his memorization of his lesson plan for the day. I was super interested in the coal items on display but that was the last question I had, because I was cut off with, "I was about ready to tell you the coal stories in the next room, as those items were what I previously selected out of storage to go on display." I never heard the coal stories nor did I hear or come away with knowing where the mine equipment originated. Being right in the middle of mining and the Mine disasters at Monongah in 1907, and Farmington in 1954 and 1968 I thought maybe those were some items pulled from the mine in memory of the miners that came came out. I came wanting to know more about the coal industry and it's history but came away with a more rounded history of the area, mainly due to David sticking to his guns and charging forward with the tour regardless of my questions. Hats off to David, and I thank him for his time, albeit not what I was looking for, it certainly was incredibly interesting and gave a human interest side of things related to the history of the area outside of mining.

One of my favorite parks in West Virginia, but they could do a little better at keeping their…read morebathrooms clean and make sure the soap and hand sanitizer is always full. I've been here a lot over the years to ride the rail trail from here to Morgantown and back and it's beautiful. I've did the tours and they are great and very insightful. It has beautiful grounds in general plus a nice gift shop. I really enjoy riding the rail trail towards Fairmont too even though it's short it's paved and the tunnel is nice and cool on a warm day. It's a great place with tons of history. Check it out and make sure to bring your bike to enjoy the rail trail and a cooler to have a nice picnic. Enjoy :D

On the way back from Morgantown yesterday Tony and I decided to stop at pricket's fort State Park…read morein Fairmont we had never been here before this was going to be a nice little afternoon adventure. The weather was lovely it was a very mild low 80° sun was Shining, flowers blooming , bees a buzzing....feels like summer finally! You found the park rather easily even though they don't have a lot of signage once you get off the interstate. The park is free to enjoy and walk around there's a couple of hiking trails and a very old cemetery. There is a really nice bathroom area near the museum and the museum is free to enjoy. There is also a gift shop. Now if you want to tour the actual fort which is a reconstructive for it which also includes the family job pricket brick house or Mansion whatever you want to call it there's a fee of $8. And seniors are six I believe. They also offer bike rental which I found to be very nice even though we were not riding bikes this day. The fort is a self-guided tour and they have people in costume to talk to show you around and answer any questions you may have. But they do not currently have a blacksmith. The job house is scheduled with a scheduled tour three times a day 11, 1 and 2:30. Since we missed the tour for the house we decided not to purchase the ticket for the fort, because the fee covers both. So our plans are to go back soon and plan our day so that way we can enjoy both the fort and the house. The staff that is working there is very friendly and will answer any questions you may have. The museum has quite a few artifacts in it and a 20 minute film talking about the fort, how it was used, and how it was very important to the frontier home life in that area at the time. I definitely highly recommend you going if you're in the area. I know Tony and I are definitely going back again. There's a lot of great things to see there, a lot of family historical information for the area, and some really neat things in the gift shop. Hope you go and hope you enjoy your day at the fort and the park.