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Weirdest Museums In Sacramento

Sacramento is full of serious, educational and historically significant museums; it is also home to collections containing somewhat quirkier and more esoteric exhibits. Whether your interests lean more towards medical quackery, car crashes, eating hairy tarantulas or enjoying old Lily Tomlin routines, these are top picks for museums of the weird.

medical-museum
(credit: ssvms.org)

Museum of Medical History
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society
5380 Elvas Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95819
(916) 452-2671
www.ssvms.org

Any museum that proudly promotes its collection of "quackery" is guaranteed to be an interesting place to visit. The overall focus of the museum is on medical, pharmacological and surgical tools and practices used from the beginning of the mid-19th century. While there are many items such as early medical textbooks, exam tables and doctor's office furniture, other displays are a bit less prosaic. Live leeches, ether masks, infectious disease paraphernalia, "irregular" doctors, arsenic, strychnine and an iron lung go a long way towards upping the facility's weird factor. This museum is a perfect outing for guys who grew up poking things with sticks to find out if they were dead.

reiff's-gas-station
(credit: reiffsgasstation.com)

Reiff's Antique Gas Station Museum
52 Jefferson St.
Woodland, CA 95695
(530) 666-1758
www.reiffsgasstation.com

Guests can time travel to small-town America, circa the 1950s, at this museum owned by Woodland resident Mark Reiff. His personal collection of gas station signs and roadside diner memorabilia began to take over his house, so he decided to turn it into a museum. He still lives there and offers tours through his living quarters in the old-fashioned general store section. The museum includes gas station and garage signs and replicas of a 50's diner and theater, as well as "car crash" and "plane crash" exhibits. One favorite item is an antique tow truck. Reiff shares photos of the now refurbished tow truck, draped in buxom waitresses on a visit to a local Hooter's restaurant. Reiff's son is noted to have said he expected the car crash and plane crash displays to be "the crazy thing that that would get Mark locked up," but added that it had not happened yet. The museum can be rented for events such as wedding receptions.

Related: Most Iconic Works Of Art In Sacramento

bohart
(credit: Bohart Museum)

Bohart Museum Of Entomology - UC Davis Campus
1124 Academic Surge Building
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-0493
www.bohart.ucdavis.edu

Located on the UC Davis campus, Bohart Museum is home to one of the top 10 collections of arthropods in North America. For the layman, it is a treasure trove of over seven million bugs and spiders. Prepare to have your taste buds tempted if you visit the museum before eating lunch. Tales of edible insects may make you hungry for roasted tarantulas, dragonflies in coconut milk or fly larvae steeped in soy sauce and sugar. Health-conscious guests will appreciate learning dietary tips such as using grasshopper, pound for pound, in place of hamburger, thereby lessening their fat intake by 12 percent. Museum visitors can also shop for the perfect gift from the BioLegacy program; imagine the delight on the faces of friends and relatives when a newly discovered insect is named after them.

Rotary telephone
(credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Roseville Telephone Museum
106 Vernon St.
Roseville, CA 95678
(916) 786-1621
www.rosevilletelephonemuseum.org

Anyone familiar with the term "one ringy–dingy" could easily imagine Ernestine, the obnoxious switchboard operator played by Lily Tomlin, living out her life in this museum. Ernestine sat at a large machine covered with phone lines, plugs and cables, modeled after a hand-cranked magneto switchboard. At the museum, guests can make a call using one of the original magneto boards that was used by the Roseville Telephone Company in 1914. Professional curators guide visitors around the museum to see original phones made by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1800s, candlestick telephones and wall phones made of wood. For an extra touch of uncommon enjoyment, "Dr. Who" fans can admire the collection of admittedly non-TARDIS antique phone booths.

Related: Best Specialty Bookstores In Sacramento

Valerie Heimerich is a freelance writer out of Sacramento. She typically covers animals and community issues. She has volunteered and worked for many organizations helping animals and people.
Her work can be found at Examiner.com.

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