Bend, OR

Remember when Ripley’s Believe it or Not used to be on TV all the time and for some of us we’d watch each episode with comments like OMG! & no way, how cool or I didn’t know that? Well somewhere between then and now the show has disappointingly disappeared as it was rich with real historical & amazing facts. Even though the show itself has virtually disappeared the facts haven’t and you can view these facts & the figures that go with them at the Ripley’s Museum, located right next door to the Wax Works Museum in Newport, OR.

Between the unexpected voices, noises & mirrors I literally ran into I experienced a kind of melodic haunting. It was weird but definitely cool. My favorite area of Ripley’s was the star room made of mirrors. I got there after running into several previous mirrors beforehand. The star room was an amazing moment of self disembodiment. The room itself is made up of mirrors, top, bottom and both sides and reflected millions of stars. It was like being suspended in the night sky.

Aside from the star room the museum contained some pretty far out, hard to believe facts from all over the world. The guy who died of old age who had carried chains around his neck for more than 10 years, the chains totaling a whopping 300+ pounds, the women who purposefully made themselves unattractive with dinner plate sized lips or how about the guy who decided that he needed to have a candle permanently secured on top of his head and who in their right mind would choose to stay reclined on a bed of nails for 180 months? These facts and many more are found here and just blew my mind.

Ripley’s Museum is great for an inexpensive trip around the world to learn the different cultures and what these cultures believed in and why. I cannot give away all the different scenes that are here otherwise I would give away so much. This is an awesome field trip for all but next time I go I will definitely take the kids as this is a trip that with the facts, kids would learn; they would definitely teach others around them and thus expand their learning of historical facts in a broad way. Ripley’s has the edge of the morbid yet it is a real part of cultures and decisions that have been made.

I was shocked to encounter some of the ways of culture that people actually practiced. Amazed by what people did and for their reasons. This is a must visit! I enjoyed walking through here more than I did the tv show. This museum is also handicap accessible. Also as a last moment, upon leaving either Ripley’s or Wax Works I can guarantee a bit of confusion and disorientation but I won’t tell you why as you need to see for yourself. So stop on by and take a gander of either museum and chat with the friendly employees.