Austin's Museum Of The Weird is a combination of horror movie memorabilia, cryptozoology and kitsch-y culture.
The Museum Of The Weird offers a Bigfoot-heavy varierty of exhbits. (Mike Damante)
The museum hosts oddities like a fossilized fishman, other carnival sideshow-like attractions, a nice ode to the golden age of horror with larger-than-life sized recreations of King Kong, Dracula, a Lon Chaney tribute and more, but the true selling point to this 6th Street destination are the Bigfoot-themed exhibits.
Visitors to the museum are treated to supposed skulls of cryptids, various footprint casts of Bigfoot, and a brief video introduction on Sasquatch. The main attraction here is an alleged body of the Minnesota Iceman, which is supposedly a Bigfoot or Neanderthal-like creature. There were no photos or videos allowed during this part of the tour, but the creature remains frozen in ice and appears to be a little over 6 feet, which is small by Sasquatch standards. Many believe this is a long-running hoax that has been traveling all of North America in the 1960s and 1970s before settling in Austin.
When the tour guide was prompted with the question on why the original owner of this corpse didn't get the DNA of the creature scientifically tested, the response was because he didn't want to run the risk of losing the creature all together, which was common to those in North America who claimed to have captured these cryptids. Since corporate interest, FBI and government intervention in these matters were a norm back then, the answer was a fair one.
Overall, the museum is a fun destination for anyone into cryptozoology or just the walk-in who are open to having their curiosities peaked.
-By MIKE DAMANTE