During
Ripley’s career as a newspaper sports cartoonist
for the Hearts Newspaper Empire, he visited 198
different countries, traveled over 500,000 miles,
and created a Believe It or Not! Cartoon a day
for over 30 years. . . never to be disproved by
anyone!
Visitors
to Ripley’s collection will travel back
in time and become familiar with the most curious
object in the entire collection. . . Robert Ripley
himself, via photographs, vintage film footage,
and memorabilia. Ripley collected cars, yet NEVER
learned to drive!
The
attraction also features very unusual arts and
hobbies invented by ordinary people. Dressed fleas,
a cobweb painting, a hand written, grain of rice,
and the world’s smallest painting on the
head of a straight pin are just a few highlights.
Visitors
will learn about primitive cultures from South
America and Africa as they view artifacts of religion,
weaponry, and habits of survival. One of the rarest
in the museum is an actual European Jivaro Indian
shrunken head. . . complete with details about
exactly how such a war trophy was produced.
The
Odditorium encompasses unusual animal and human
attractions such as the world’s tallest
man, the human torso, the bearded lady, and a
two-headed calf. In 1992 we included a 1,000 piece
hand carved wooden miniature circus, which is
a replica of Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey’s
“Greatest Show on Earth.” A major
addition for 1993 included a ½ scale animatronics
Tyrannosaurus Rex and artifact gallery. 1994’s
addition was a simulation of Galveston 1990: a
hurricane disaster, which included unbelievable
hurricane results. In 1995 we included interactive
displays through the attraction and in ’97
we unveiled the “Time Travel center.” |
