The Idaho Potato Museum, Blackfoot Idaho

This was our first stop on our trip to Idaho Falls.

http://idahopotatomuseum.com/

We had heard good things about it, that it is interesting, but a short visit, and that was basically true. We spent about forty minutes there.

One thing we loved was how they get into the theme. Your parting gift is a carton of dried hash browns, and the bags in the gift shop were mesh similar to the kind of sack that you would buy potatoes in. We are suckers for cute.

Once inside you start with historical and cultural information on on the cultivation of the potato. I was excited to see Chuño samples, because that was featured prominently in 1491, and not I have seen it in person. 

You move on to a movie about large scale potato farming and processing, and the displays are interesting and educational.

They only have a picture of the world's largest potato, but they have the largest potato chip there, under glass, right under a collection of Pringles cans. 

We found a dress and tuxedo made out of potato sacking, and while I can't recommend that, they also have a photograph and other artwork of Marilyn Monroe wearing a potato sack. I don't know that she actually makes the sack look good, but it doesn't make her look bad.

Moving on we found farming equipment, and an entire case full of potato mashers. Then, perhaps on the silly side, there was a display on Mister Potato Head. Our timing was just about perfect, because just as we were finishing up, a field trip from a senior center arrived, and we were able to make our mistake. 

Our next stop was the National Museum of Idaho, in Idaho Falls. I am not going to do a separate post on that, because while there are some permanent exhibits we were mostly viewing the King Tut exhibit, and so going at a different time would be a different experience. I do want to point out, though, that the staff was very enthusiastic and helpful. As they would tell you stories about the background of the items they showed a passion that I wasn't expecting.

http://www.museumofidaho.org/