Missouri museums attract visitors with unusual displays

When you need a break but don't have the budget for a luxury vacation, why not try something a little out of the ordinary that's found closer to home.

Missouri is home to two of the nation's seven wackiest museums, according to a 2002 survery posted on Fodors.com, a travel-related Web site. They are Leila's Hair Museum in Independence and the Elvis is Alive Museum and 50s Cafe in Wright City.

Leila's Hair Museum has 2,000 pieces of jewelry and 200 wreaths all made of hair. Hair art was popular during the Victorian era and families used hair from new members to make wreaths in the shape of horseshoes. More hair was added with each new addition to the family.

Leila Cohoon said the museum is really a genealogy of human hair.

The Elvis museum and cafe along Interstate 70 in Wright City is a tribute to the King.

Visitors can see FBI documents and written evidence of how Elvis was linked to the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and Witness Protection Program.

Owner Billy Beeny believes Elvis isn't dead but has just stopped performing. His museum highlights conspiracy theories and Elvis sightings. There's even a replica of Elvis Presley's tombstone.

While displays of hair and Elvis memorabilia rank among the nation's wackiest museum exhibits, there are plenty of other out of the ordinary museums in Missouri. Among them:

Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum

This St. Louis sports museum devotes more space to bowling than the Cardinals baseball team. The Cardinals Hall of Fame is housed in the same building downtown.

Exhibits in the Bowling Hall of Fame show its 5,000-year history, with beginnings among the ancient Egyptians and Vikings. There is a replica of a stone bowling game found in a child's grave in northern Egypt. Guests can even bowl four free frames and get a peek at the back of a lane to see how the automatic pin-setting machines work.

Veterinary Museum

Jefferson City has the nation's only museum devoted solely to veterinary medicine. The Veterinary Museum is open from 1 to 5 p.m. each Wednesday through Saturday.

The collection with more than 3,500 artifacts shows manuscripts from Missouri's first settlers trying to care for their horses, a wooden operating table for small animals that dates to the 1870s and a 1920s vaccinating kit for hog cholera.

Visitors can touch animal bones, skins and hairballs. There are even some specimens showing various animal diseases and a calf embryo.

For more information, call (573) 636-8737.

The Dental Health Theatre

This museum and exhibit in Laclede's Landing in St. Louis is a combination of dental health education and entertainment. The country's only other set of giant teeth are found in California.

A Chicago dentist had the illuminated teeth made in the 1970s but found them difficult to house in his home so a St. Louis dentist bought them and created the museum.

At the Dental Health Theatre, visitors can see one of two films, designed for younger and older children, and a marionette puppet show that teaches about good dental health. Presentations are about 45 minutes long. The films are shown to groups of 15 or more.

A dental arch with 16 fiberglass teeth, each three feet high, is used to show proper techniques in brushing and flossing. There is even oversized dental floss and a toothbrush.

Admission to the museum is free. For information or to schedule a tour, call (314) 241-7391.