In the little town of Southern Pines, NC lies a truly unique museum in the basement of a Christian book store. As best as I can tell the name of the Museum is the North Carolina Taxidermy Hall of Fame, Creation and Antique Tool Museum.
Let's digest this for a moment. This is a museum focusing on three unique, but unrelated things.
First, It is the North Carolina Taxidermy Hall of Fame, showing off great taxidermy from all over NC (and other parts of the world).
Second, we have antique tools, which I'm sure sure fascinate someone, but much like quilts, they just don't personally do much for me.
Third, it is a Creation museum. A museum that makes the argument against the theory of evolution and instead makes the argument that the biblical account of creation is the accurate one. This isn't a big fancy high tech creation museum like the one over in Kentucky, but it does have some of unique charm of its own.
So what do these three things have in common? Nothing! The museum doesn't really make any attempt to make a connection between the three, yet they are not separated into three distinct museums. The Taxidermy, tools and creationism are jumbled together with no real distinction or flow. So one must accept this museum as it is. Just enter under the giant Suit of Armor....yeah, this might get confusing.
The museum jumps right in and tackles evolution....
I'm not quite sure what exactly the message is here.......
The Serpent from the Garden of Eden is the only evidence of evolution? If I had to guess, I think they are referring tot he fact that in the Bible the serpent was forced to crawl on his belly as punishment for his roll in the fall of man. Meaning, he may have had legs before he was punished. Which actually, would be devolution instead of evolution. Maybe, I'm thinking this about too hard.
The rest of the creation portion of the museum is sprinkled liberally throughout the museum. Some of it is a little confusing, like this giant sneaker, that is referred to as the missing link............
There is some various pro-life statements stuck in between the taxidermy.....
And some bible verses hung amongst the animals.....
Then of course there is the endless fascination that is the antique tools....
Great stuff, eh?
They also have a room covered in barbed wire.....
And special exhibit on "The King of Tools"....
And some tools that may or may not have been touched by John Wayne....
The majority of the museum is definitely the taxidermy......
This being the NC Taxidermy Hall of Fame, the Official Animal of the South is well represented.....
They also have quite the collection of albino animals.....
They have two roosters engaged in a cockfight to the death....
And the most deadliest killer of the all.....The Fly...........
And of course, we get some of the weird stuff....
They do have two of the classic cryptids: the fur bearing trout....
And one of the most unique Jacklopes I have ever seen...........
Check out the super rare wings and bird feet!
I was a bit confused by this case labeled "Jesus" that was filled with sports memorabilia.....
Wait a minute, now this is suddenly a sports museum too? This is getting very random.
Perhaps the most intriguing display is a cluttered display case labeled "False God's Worshiped in Place of the Creator"
This includes of course all other world religions, labeled as "Strange Stuff"....
Tiki heads and Beer.....
Fitness magazines.....
And Country Music......
Regardless of your beliefs, there is no denying this is an experience you will never forget.....
The Carpetbagger
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