The museum operates from 10 am to 7 pm Monday through Thursday, and from 10 am to 9 pm Friday through Sunday, though closures may occur on holidays or due to inclement weather. Admission tickets are priced at $12.99 for adults and $8.99 for children under 8, available for purchase at the onsite shop.
THE DIME OR DIME STORE museum is a rare and endangered species today. The first dime museum, "The American Museum," opened in 1841 by P. T. Barnum, marked a departure from traditional high-class art and science museums. It catered to a less affluent audience and showcased items of questionable authenticity. The allure of dime museums lay in the debate between what was real and what was a "humbug" or hoax, epitomized by displays like Feejee mermaids (fake taxidermy) alongside genuine exotic animals and oddities like a loom operated by a dog. Unfortunately, Barnum's American Museum burned down in 1865. While most dime museums vanished by the 1920s, some, like New York City's Hubert’s Museum, persisted until the late 1960s. The American Dime Museum in Baltimore, a recreation, opened in 1999 but closed in 2007. "Austin’s Museum of the Weird," created by Steve Busti within his "Lucky Lizard" store, continues this tradition with curiosities reminiscent of turn-of-the-century dime museums, including a Feejee mermaid, a cyclops pig, a hand of glory, shrunken heads, and mummies. The museum also features a Wax Museum and a special exhibit on "The Minnesota Iceman," a decades-old mystery.