The museum is awesome!! So much to see and learn. The wildlife is incredible to see. We saw a very…read moremajestic bald eagle up close. We experienced the steam engines running and visited with the curator for a bit to learn even more. The movies were very well done. The fact that your tickets are good for two days allows you to take your time. Worth every penny and your time!!! A must see!!

Took a quick day cruise out to Dubuque Iowa. Yeah I know Iowa right. Fun little town located on the…read moremississippi river. Spent about 2 hours at the Mississippi River museum.Looking at the animals , checking out the museum,river and the exhibits outside. There was multiple movies and exhibits about early travel on the mississippi river and also real boat engines of steamboats and other river vessels. We spent about two hours there , exploring the inside and the outside of the museum. Very enjoyable and inexpensive experience for people of all ages.

Such a great time! The grandkids loved it almost as much as we did. The owners are such great…read morehosts, and you truly will be amazed by all the fun details! So much to see. Don't forget the train ride!

Such a great place for kids (young and old)! I'd recommend planning to spend about an hour there…read more There's lots of buttons to push for the kids and TONS of details to keep the adults busy.

I was just in town for the weekend wanted to check out historical sites.. the buildings sign out…read morefront said the jail tours are closed to renovations :/ Looked cool tho

It's a great place to go to: Their is however an Erie felling in the air it was a place for the…read moreworst criminals and a museum of a lot of american history from when you walk through the squealing doors to the raftors above it's a great and scary place to be just think of all the murders

If not for the Carrie Pearce exhibition, 'The Merry Makers,' my visit here would have been one of…read moreutter regret. This is a small museum and the draw is the even smaller collection of Grant Wood paintings. While you can take photos of most works here -- there isn't much of the permanent collection displayed -- the Woods are off limits to your photo shutter. That's just silly and the museum should embrace its few strengths. Ms. Pearce's paintings here made my visit. They are magical and were inspired by a woman named Ina who, many decades ago as a little girl, suffered from tuberculosis and was confined to a body cast for ten years. She underwent almost countless spinal surgeries. Her parents were permitted to visit just once a month. It's a heartbreaking story but the paintings here reflect the artist's vision of a girl who was forced to rely on just a few toys and the saving power of her imagination to survive. These scenes are dreamscapes meticulously and lovingly constructed. Due to the pandemic, at this time we are all in a state of our own cautious confinement. Having to withdraw from our family, friends, and neighbors, we now use time to explore our individual and collective imaginations. As we ruminate inside our homes, how will we picture and envision our future? It's scary right now but Ina is an example that we can thrive: in spite of all that she went through as a child, according to Ms. Pearce, Ina is 89 years old and healthy.

A lovely very small art museum that has a wonderful collection of Grant Wood lithographs from…read more1939-1940 which makes it worth the visit. Also a permanent collection of photographs of Native Americans early 20th century by Curtis. A room full of Royal Copenhagen ceramics from Art No era is quite impressive. Staff friendly.

Why is this museum so exceptional?! Seriously, I am a museum junkie for sure, and this is one of…read morethe BEST learning spaces I have ever seen. Especially, considering the small size of the community, and the distinctly rural nature of its history, the stories shared are compelling, beautifully rendered, and artistically curated. I did not expect to spend so much time reading every sign and exploring every detail of the artifacts on display - well done to the team behind this space! Special recognition goes to the portion of the exhibit covering the Native residents of the area. An accurate depiction of removal and resettlement, an honest account of the human impact of settlement and colonization, as well as an up to date account of the current status of the first residents - this is the most complete and accurate account I have seen in a Wisconsin museum, and it is very appreciated. The telegraph exhibit comes alive when you approach - be warned, it scared me! LOL - but I bet kids love it.

I thought the museum was pretty cool but on my part of the trip I was just casually looking at the…read morefree section but I'm sure that there's more fun stuff you paid for the full admission. The man at the front desk was very friendly and helpful. So great history seen in another room though it's more localized stuff and a bit too recent to be called history. Then again being called The Troll Capital world since 1984 is still a bit young too. You can find some great troll figures to purchase as well. Sadly, I really wasn't too Blown Away by the museum at all.

Great place to stop if you are spending anytime in Galena! Staff was very knowledgeable and kindread more

Great docent ! Felt we left knowing so much about the home and family ! The stories and facts added…read moreto whatever knew about Grant

This place is so interesting and it is HUGE. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here. Some areas…read moreare very hot/humid. I do not deal well with heat so I did have to move thru some areas faster than I would have liked. They do have a cafe half way thru so you can have some food and drinks. I did not stop here but it did smell wonderful. There's many things to see and everything is really cool and unique. The house and infinity room are impressive as well as the HUGE whale but all of Alex's inventions and collections are amazing as well. Honestly, the whole reason why I wanted to come was the world's largest indoor carousel. It is beautiful. I definitely sat there for awhile watching it. Side note on the Carousel, they have no horses but they do have a bulldog and as a owner of a bulldog, I literally bought everything in the gift shop that had a bulldog on it. Till this day, they are still uncovering more items in storage lockers so they probably will continue to add more items. I do think this place is worth the price and it is something you won't find anywhere else. I would love to check this place out again and I do highly recommend it. Also, the gift shop is big and had a lot of different items for everyone.

My cousin really wanted to come here and I didn't even know what it was. We drove here from St…read more Louis to come see this attraction. I came in blind, not knowing what it was. It was super impressed. It literally kept going on and on and on. so many fun interesting things. We stopped and got a hotdog at the cafeteria, which was nice because we were getting a little hungry and thirsty on this long walk. I would recommend bringing dollar bills so you can buy coins and put them into the different coin operated machines that they have. They have a lot of those around the entire facility and it's one of the only interactive options. Obviously everything looked really cool. I think that the only thing that would make it better would be to have a more interactive aspect to some of the parts, but I'm not sure how they would do that and I don't think they're gonna change anything. It's still well worth a visit.

Great museum. We'd…read morevisited here last, about 20 years ago. Memory fades and it was time to revisit on this trip. All exhibits are housed inside on 2.5 floors. There is also a gift shop and restrooms. I found no elevator. We paid (senior rate saves $1 each) and went into a seating room where there used to be a video projection (no longer working). The staff member there today, Les, led everyone into this room to be seated. Les spoke about the rich history of Galena and he was quite detailed. We found this worthwhile. After the speech, we looked around this room at mostly US Grant artifacts, then we headed to a very large back room that has many displays, dioramas etc. on Galena. Lead mining had a rich history here for a few decades, so there was a lot of mining history on display. When we were done downstairs, we walked upstairs where there is a smallish room on the 2nd floor and a much larger room on what I'd call floor 2.5. Floor 2.5 had mostly wartime history while floor 2 had a variety of history on display. Note that the stairs are fairly steep. The first set also has a 90 degree turn near the top. There is a low, wooden banister-style handrail on one side. To access floor 2.5, there are another 6 or 8 steps to get up to it and there's a metal handrail for them. All in all - it's a pretty well done history museum for a small community and it was worth the time. I'd recommend this useful to anyone who wonders, "why does this town exist, how was it formed and what does its evolution look like". We enjoy museums like this.

What a great little museum! We didn't know what to expect, but I can honestly say we were blown…read moreaway! The ladies that welcomed us were so friendly and knowledgeable about the museum! There was so much packed in! It wasn't only about Grant but about the whole settling of Galena and all the way back to the ice age! I have to say this is a gem of a place and definitely a must see! It's clean and reasonably priced! We will definitely come back when we come to visit again.

This is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it museum on the way to House on the Rock. It is totally worth…read moreyour time to stop. Fantastic collection of local, regional, and global crystals, fossils, gems, and rocks. The owner will give you some history on the collection and then you can just wander and gape at all the cool stuff. There's an entire room of fluorescing rocks. There are massive geodes. There are even more massive fluorite specimens. There are even fossilized lightening strikes! That's right, lightening strikes. There's also a stable so you can go for a ride and visit the museum in one stop.

While it may look unassuming, this is an amazing little museum. The specimens are truly remarkable…read moreand the owner is a kind old man who's happy to share his passion with you. It does cost $7 to get in, but that's a small price to pay for the intimate experience. There is also a small gift shop that's perfect for mineral or fossil nerds (plus it's very reasonably priced. If you're stopping by House on the Rock, Taliesin, or Cave of the Mounds, you need to stop by here! It's criminally underrated! Definitely going to stop by here again.