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.

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.

An amazing experience for the whole family! Adults and kids alike will have an absolutely wonderful…read moretime interacting with the model trains. There is a 1930s miniature train that the family can ride on that takes you all around the property. The building is air conditioned and accessible. If you and the family are visiting the Cave in the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, then you've got to visit The Toy Train Barn Museum!

This museum has made our young sons blissfully happy many times, but we adults find something…read morespecial and new upon every visit too. Buck Guthrie has poured his passion and life's work into creating something truly special.

everthing! staff-quality-spotless-variety - cost-food- parking-location-display's/destinationread more

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!!

Cute historic site! Pretty grounds with very well kept wood buildings. Tourist site with a garden…read more Review: 5+

One of the first historical sites preserved. Neat history and hidden gem for Wisconsin.read more

I will start off by saying I have been looking forward to visiting this place for YEARS. I am also…read moreNOT a circus fan. I remember being 3 or 4 years old and my dad taking me to the Circus and we left after about 5 minutes. I just hated everything about it. But I always enjoyed the Circus paintings, flyers, etc. from the old days. This place had TONS of that! This place is Ringling Bros original winter quarters. There is so much to explore. I've seen tons of videos on youtube of this place but it is does not do it justice with how large this place really is. This place took about 4 hours for me to explore. There's indoor and outdoor exhibits. The outdoor portion has historical buildings, which was really fun to explore. They did have a couple of shows going on but I came on a Monday and it was fairly quiet which was very nice. The only show I saw was the Circus they have which was actually VERY good. I was not looking forward to it but it was about an hour and it was so entertaining. I would 100% recommend and would come back. If nothing else, you can enjoy all the old posters and banners like myself.

Do you love the art of the circus and want to expierence the most unique museum ever? Well Circus…read moreWorld is for you. This place is Ringling Bros original winter quarters. There are a few different things to see here and I highly recommend spending the day exploring it all. First the main room when you enter will have history on the Ringling Brothers along with a few novelty items. Then next to it are all the animal houses that have wagons, dioramas, and so much more in each of them. They have things from Ringling, but also history on other circus's. Now you cross a bridge to the other side where they have the Hippodrome. In here they have a few small shows in here. They also have actual circus train cars that were used by Ringling. During the summer months they have a circus tent where they do a circus show that's free with the price of admission to the museum. Now the best part is the wagon area. It's a giant building that holds about 50 wagons from every circus around. The history of these wagons is amazing. Overall if you want a day of exploring circus history and want to see the live circus, visit this amazing place.

What a hidden gem! Check their Facebook page for hours, it's only open limited days and hours. Free…read moreadmission. Totally unique vehicles you won't see anywhere else. Fully restored and presented with information. Don't miss the building next door with motorized bikes! And both buildings have a second level with more to see!

An unexpected gem. Large collection of very small cars, some built on motorcycle frames, popular…read morejust after WW II. Some may not have been very safe, but they made cars widely affordable. If you contact them, they'll probably open the museum for you as they did for us -- 6 people.

This museum was a little meh. Some of the trains were rather…read morebeat up, not restored, the inside areas were a little musty in my opinion. The area inside the station wasn't great. The train ride was a little bland - and the stop that the train made was too long. The inside of the train was a bit beat up/worn down. The person who provided info inside the railway museum sheds (not sure if there is a better word?) was nice and informative. For $24 or so it seems a steep price. Bathrooms on site, free parking on the grounds.

My family and i visited yesterday and it was the COOLEST experience. Everyone was incredibly kind…read moreand so informative!!! It was my son's third birthday and he's obsessed with trains. They even took the time to answer all my other kids questions!!! We got to see how the train gets turned around on the tracks and then ride in the caboose! The gift shop is super affordable and the staff is incredible. Probably about a two hour excursion so just know you won't probably spend the whole day there but it's so fun!! Lots to see and lots to learn!

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.

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.

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.