Ridiculous Museums That Are Actually Real

#1 The Baked Bean Museum Of Excellence

Around the globe, you can find museums dedicated to all sorts of food items, from potato chips, potatoes, and pickled pigs feet. But this unusual attraction is dedicated to baked beans, and not just any baked beans, Heinz brand beans. Operated by Barry Kirk, aka, Captain Beany, the museum is in the Welsh town of Port Talbot. Captain Beany does all kinds of slimy stunts for charity, including soaking in a tub of beans for 100 hours and tattooing 60 of the kidney-shaped seeds on his head. The weirder part of this museum is that it is in his apartment. Yes, it is spread all over the apartment, including the bedroom and bathroom, and visitors pay to see the oddball collection of everything legume. It's even listed on the Welch Tourist brochure as an attraction.

#2 The Cockroach Hall Of Fame Museum

An exterminator, Michael Bohdan has been at war with cockroaches most of his life. When the Plano, Texas man decided that he couldn't win the battle, he went on a mission in the 1980s to find the largest cockroach in Texas. The stunt got him an interview with Johnny Carson, and hoping to stay in the spotlight, Bohdan traveled across the country, acting as a judge in the world's weirdest contest. When the contest ended, Bohdan was stuck with hundreds of huge roaches. So, he decided to give the world a nice gift and opened the Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum.

#3 Museum Of Broken Relationships

What becomes of the broken hearted? Well, here's the answer. Ex-lovers from Croatia, Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic, decided to start a museum with all of their mementos from their failed relationship. The Museum of Broken Relationships has accepted donations from jilted lovers across the world and even opened a second location in Los Angeles. They both house heartbreaking items from relationships gone bad, like a flat iron with a card that reads, "This iron was used to iron my wedding suit. Now it is the only thing left." Visitors may ask for a box of Kleenex upon entering because the broken relationships are pretty sad. One unopened box reads "Mom left when I was three, this is one of the few Christmas gifts she has given me."

#4 The Icelandic Phallological Museum

This place is exactly what it sounds like. Penises everywhere. All shapes, sizes, species and specimens imaginable. Located in Reykjavik, Iceland, this museum houses an incredibly large collection of penises, from pretty much every mammal imaginable. There's ram, reindeer, cat, and dog. If you're looking for something with a little more girth, there's also a giraffe and an elephant for you to admire. All of the actual penises are kept in jars of formaldehyde, while the walls are adorned with rather impressive baculums (aka penis bones). There's even one from a cave bear, a creature that's been extinct for thousands of years. But without a doubt, the most unsettling object on display comes from a man named Pall Arason. Yep, that's right. There's a human penis on display.

#5 The Museum Of Menstruation

You might visit Washington DC to see the monuments or go to one of the many amazing historical museums, but while there you may wish to see the Museum of Menstruation. Founded by a 51-year-old named Harry Finley and just 30 minutes from the White House, it is literally all you can imagine about periods. You'll find mannequins clothed in various forms of menstrual underwear, and glimpse old-timey ads or government pamphlets dedicated to this touchy topic. With a wide array of pads and tampons to check out, guests were guaranteed to have a bloody good time. The museum was closed in 1998 after it caused an uproar from visitors who thought that Finley was just a pervert.

#6 The National Mustard Museum

This peculiar museum is owned by a former Wisconsin assistant attorney general, Barry Levenson, who found himself wandering around a grocery store one day back in the 1980s astonished at the various types of mustard. So he did the thing most people would do and opened a museum dedicated to all things mustard and mustard making. Showcasing nearly 6,000 different varieties of mustard from every U.S. state and around 80 different countries and all types of all the old-timey mustard advertisements decorating the building, it can be found in Middleton, Wisconsin.

#7 International UFO Museum

You've probably heard of this place before. The International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, naturally raises a lot more questions about what happened in July 1947 than it answers. That was when something was seen in the sky above Roswell, New Mexico, leading to years of speculation about visitors from other planets, and a possible government coverup. The museum is the home to personal photos, government leaked film, and log books about the night the ship went down in the desert.

The exhibits in this museum will help you remember: They're gray, not green.

#8 The Institute Of Illegal Images

Mark McCloud runs a mind-bending museum which is a gallery dedicated to the psychedelic world of LSD and everything that accompanied the drug in the 1960s through the 1980s. An acid connoisseur, McCloud has been dropping the stuff since age 13, and he credits LSD with saving his life. Ever since then he has been collecting sheets of little paintings or "blotters" which are acid soaked pieces of amazing artwork. He hangs the acid hits and hangs them on his walls along with other psychedelic artwork from "high" artists. In total, McCloud owns at least 33,000 sheets, which, according to Wired, means he's in possession of a couple million hits of acid. He has been arrested, jailed, charged, and questioned by the DEA but because his LSD is old and worn, and framed, he is allowed to keep it as art.

#9 The Museum Of Death

If dead bodies, mummies, coffins, and the macabre freak you out, then don't go to this freakish museum located in both Hollywood and New Orleans. Founded by J.D. Healy and Cathee Schultz, the museum aims to "take away the stigma of people being afraid of dying." But despite best intentions, the museum is gory and creepy. Both museums feature several skulls, deformed bodies, mummified freaks, and torture devices. The doors are from Alcatraz, and you can find things like a lock of Nicole Brown Simpson's hair, a self-portrait by John Wayne Gacy, a quilt sewn by the Manson family, and a business card from Jack Ruby. Add to all that a load of video and photographs from car accidents, farm accidents, and executions, and it's pretty scary.

#10 Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum

This is a place you "gotta go!" according to TripAdvisor. Barney Smith, the 93-year-old proprietor, is as much a reason to visit — if not more of one — than the toilet seats. Barney's is about an hour southwest of Austin, in a suburb of San Antonio. The exhibit is set up in Smith's garage which he opens to the public for free. Every year, he makes a new toilet seat art piece for his wife for their anniversary, which is pretty weird.

#11 Chasing Rainbows Museum

If you're in the Smoky Mountains or more specifically, Pigeon Forge, TN, you might want to visit one of the dozens of museums on the main street including this one dedicated to Dolly Parton. Not far from the stars Dollywood theme park, this place is a shrine to the glitz and glamor of Dolly Parton. They have costumes worn by the performer on stage and in her films like 9 To 5, Rhinestone, and Steel Magnolias. You'll even find a 1980s pinball machine featuring the bombshell.

#12 International Banana Museum

This museum is located in Mecca, California, and their website advertises that "it's appealing". The museum features everything related to the yellow fruit from information on the various types of bananas to the farming and harvesting of the popular fruits. They offer 20,000 banana related items including four banana soda drinks.