Jones' Fantastic Museum was a family-oriented museum filled with a unique collection of weird and amazing inventions, strange

sideshow In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. They historically featured human oddity exhibits (so-called “Freak show, freak shows”), pr ...

attractions, old-time

dime museum Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public.Sears, Clare. “Electric Brillia ...

machines and antique exhibits, originally located in Snohomish County, and later in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, United States, from 1963 to 1980. It was created by avid collector Walt a.k.a. Doc Jones.

Early history

In 1959, Jones and his wife Dorothy opened up a museum on Gunnysack Hill, a mile-long section of

U.S. Route 99 U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the Mexican border to Blaine, Washington, on the Canadian border. It w ...

just north of

Lynnwood, Washington Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located north of Seattle and south of Everett, Washington, Everett, near the junction of Interstate 5 in Washington, ...

. This first museum was also named Jones' Fantastic Museum. Many Jones pieces formed a popular attraction at the

1962 Seattle World's Fair The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington, United States. The collection subsequently found a home on the balcony level (third floor) of the former Food Circus (now Center House) in the

Seattle Center The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, 1962 W ...

. Called Jones' Fantastic Show when it first opened on Saturday, October 5, 1963, the Seattle museum was renamed Jones' Fantastic Museum sometime after the Gunnysack Hill museum closed. Below are some excerpts from an article written by Terri Malinowski that appeared December 12, 1963 in the Northshore Citizen newspaper:

Exhibits and attractions

Displayed outside the entrance to the museum were many old pictures of sideshow freaks and human oddities. The Okeh Laughing Record, a 1923 recording of a man and woman laughing while a musician plays a funereal trumpet solo, played in a continuous loop along with a recording of Jones as a sideshow barker, enticing people to enter. For 13 years the museum featured a real live

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

named Count Pugsly who roamed around scaring children and adults alike, even outside the museum. Sometimes he would appear to be a

mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...

, standing still until an unsuspecting visitor stepped in front of him. As soon as the realization struck the visitor that no activating floor mat was there, he would walk towards them, often eliciting loud screams of fright. The role of the vampire was played by future horror author W. H. Pugmire. Pugmire's recent works include

Lovecraftian Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is na ...

books of weird fiction. His earlier works include the publication of the punk rock

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

''Punk Lust'' in the 1980s. The museum included a collection of funhouse mirrors, mannequins sporting extra legs and arms, a "Death Ray" machine, Sally Rand's dancing slippers, a long row of electronic switches that randomly activated a variety of

automaton An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

s, a nine-foot-tall "mummified

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

" called Olaf the Giant, and a talking skull wearing a

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

moustache that loudly spouted gibberish in German. Jones had sped up an actual recording of Hitler, giving his speech a cartoonish quality. The sign in front of the skull read "Hitler is Alive!" An especially memorable item was the Laughing Lady, dubbed

Laffing Sal Laffing Sal is one of several animatronic characters that were built primarily to attract carnival and amusement park patrons to funhouses and dark rides throughout the United States. Its movements were accompanied by a raucous laugh that someti ...

by her manufacturer. She rocked back and forth laughing uncontrollably with her arms and legs swinging wildly whenever someone stepped on a floor mat in front of her glass and wood case. More exhibits appear in the list of items below.

Later history

Doc Jones committed suicide in the early 1970s. In 1973, the third floor of the Food Circus was being renovated, so Jones' heirs moved a greatly downsized version of the museum into the basement. Much smaller than before, it remained there until 1980. Two years later, the entire collection was donated to Seattle Children's Hospital per Jones' will. The will stipulated that if the contents of the museum were ever sold, they must be sold as a whole and not broken up. The hospital put the collection up for sale in 1984. After searching one year for a buyer, museum broker Bill Zimmerman found collector Jim Schmit of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. According to Zimmerman, the sale "was difficult because the items were so diverse and bizarre and because the hospital wanted to sell it in its entirety." Schmit, already known to

Southern Oregon Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia thr ...

ians for gathering together the world's largest collection of antique

outhouse An outhouse — known variously across the English-speaking world otherwise as bog, dunny, long-drop, or privy — is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket ...

s, purchased the entire collection for an undisclosed amount, in partnership with his former neighbor and friend,

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

businessman Ralph Bothne. As of late 1985, much of the Jones collection formed part of the Lakeview Fantastic Museum, located in the small Southern Oregon town of Lakeview on U.S. Route 395 near the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

border. For some reason—perhaps a dearth of visitors due to the remote location—by 1991 Schmit had moved his museum to a more prominent location in

Redmond, Oregon Redmond is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. The population was 33,274 at the 2020 census, and according to 2023 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 37,009. The city is on the eastern side of Oregon ...

. Renamed the World Famous Fantastic Museum, it opened in June 1991. There is evidence to suggest that the museum's relationship with Redmond city planners was always contentious. Schmit's putting up a

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...

on the property may have led directly to the closing of the popular and successful museum in 1996. In May 1997, Schmit opened up the Museum of the Fantastic in

Sisters, Oregon Sisters is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,038 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The community takes its ...

. Containing only 10% of his collection, it was shut down less than two years after it opened.

Breakup of the collection

At some point, perhaps around the time the Redmond museum opened, another museum containing a portion of the Jones collection opened in

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

. The existence of this other museum—hundreds of miles from Redmond—probably marks the beginning of the dissolution of the Jones collection. However, the two collections were still displayed under one name: World Famous Fantastic Museum. In 1993, Doug Higley received on loan many Jones pieces from both museums for his True Wonders Old Time Museum at Lake Tahoe in California. Sharing Jones' passion for sideshows, freaks and oddities, Higley went to great effort and expense to make his Tahoe museum the best around. Despite his great care and attention to detail, Higley's museum only lasted about a year. Visitors to the area instead spent their money in the casinos adjacent to the museum.

List of items

*"Abdominal" Snow Woman *Amazing Mechanical Jazz Band *Baseball coin-op game *Bicycle air conditioner *Blow torch/hot air machine for politicians *" Captain Hook's hook" *Chamber of Horrors *Coin-op game with machine guns that blast Nazi warplanes *Counterfeiter's workshop *Four-legged lady *

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

in a bird cage *Germ Killer mallet *Hall of funhouse mirrors *"Hitler is Alive!" talking skull *Human skeleton in a display case *Inhuman Head (in barber shop box) *Jules Verne death ray machine *Laughing Lady *Life-size elephant automaton *Man from Mars Machine *Manley Model 49 popcorn maker *Olaf the Giant *Petrified Space Man *Photo gallery of sideshow freaks *Pianotainer

player piano A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home ...

*Quartet of musical monkeys *Sally Rand's dancing slippers *Shoot the Bear coin-op game *Spiked chair "where

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

sat for inspiration" *Two-headed lady *Voice-O-Graph recording machine

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Jones' Fantastic Museum (Facebook fans of page)Jones' Fantastic Museum (YouTube Channel)
Defunct museums in Washington (state) Sisters, Oregon