American Oddities Museum

From haunted dolls and funeral home artifacts to religious relics, Ouija boards, and strange sideshow items, all things bizarre fill the shelves of the American Oddities Museum.

Located in the Mineral Springs Hotel, in the small (and, according to some, haunted) town of Alton, Illinois, the kitschy museum opened in the 1990s. It was originally dedicated to torture objects, until another couple took it over and developed a museum with a broader collection of oddities.

When they were ready to sell, Troy Taylor, author of The Devil Came to St. Louis: The True Story of the 1949 Exorcism, and other books on true crime and the unexplained, took over.

Today, people from all over stop by to take in the massive collection of wacky, macabre artifacts. In the entry hall, Taylor has created a free museum dedicated to the history of Alton, including accounts of the town’s many reported hauntings and the story of Robert Wadlow, a past resident who, during his time, was known as the tallest man who ever lived, at nearly nine feet tall.