You’ll never find me at the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, or the Great Wall of China (unless I’m posing for a photo with a camel). I consider myself something of a connoisseur of the world’s third and fourth rate tourist sites. I have visited Zhu Ge Liang’s “birthplace” in Hubei Province, ridden decommissioned carnival rides in South America, and gone on an urban peacock safari in Fort Pierce, Florida. These are the kinds of places where I seek out novel tourism and new information.

This week I took the children on a field trip to the southern United States, where the people are warm and cultural oddities abound. It was in the town of Southern Pines, North Carolina that we visited the Taxidermy Hall of Fame of North Carolina. This museum has a lot happening all at once. First, it is a self-constructed museum of award winning taxidermy with an acclaimed minx in one of the displays. Second, it is a creation museum decrying the foolishness of the theory of evolution. Third, it is a museum of antique tools, the majority of which are levels, filling display case after display case. Finally, the museum is located inside of a Chrisitian bookstore in a small southern town.

As a blog that writes about the intersection of Christian religion, comedy, and culture, The Taxidermy Hall of Fame seems ripe for a joke. This amateur museum has been served up and is ready to be knocked out of the park by a long, trolling piece on the informative value of anti-evolution curated content. Doesn’t that seem like the obvious and easy thing to do?

But I’m having complicated feelings towards the creation museum.

First off, in a culture and country where everything seems so corporate and standardized the creation museum stands out as a unique experience. Most places in America, you could be blindfolded, driven across the country and dumped off in a tourist spot or entertainment venue. Take the blindfold off and you couldn’t tell if you were in California or Connecticut. Everything is so lamely the same and designed more to take money out of your wallet than to bless your heart. But at the Taxidermy Hall of Fame even the carpet is different from room to room, and hall to hall. They obviously used what was on hand and not what an interior designer ordered!

And the museum has a lot of personality. You can stand back and look at many display cases full of antique levels. When will you EVER have that opportunity come up for you again? You’re not interested!? You say you’ve got something better to do this evening? What, like stay at home and slurp up whatever warmed over dreck the streaming services are peddling this weekend? Come on, get out and see some levels.

And taxidermy apparently is not easy. When done well, in the middle of a Christian bookstore, it resembles an Appalachian garden of Eden that has been frozen in time. A choral arrangement of “Great is Thy Faithfulness” plays over the store speakers, out of town shoppers lazily thumb through Joyce Meyer, while shocked foxes, mouths agape, look out over the whole scene. It is truly a testament to the ingenuity and psychological complexities of humanity.

And sure, creationism is an odd hill to die on, mostly because it’s a quaint argument. It seems to be a raging discussion waged by the unqualified happening on the fringes of nowhere between a few people and no one. But is it really worth laughing at? I left the museum feeling surprisingly unbothered. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion”, I think that’s what they say down south.

Mostly I feel bad for Charles Darwin, who was such a devout Christian. Sure, he was out of town A LOT, but when he was around Deacon Darwin could be counted on to do just about anything that was needed around the congregation. And he was dedicated. Rain or shine, Chuck was going to be in his seat when the service started on Sunday. He took that same degree of zeal into all of his work. No doubt Darwin was even more passionate than whomever built this zany museum. He just happened to be curious and open to new information when it became available. Now he’s public enemy number one. Poor man.

There is a cash box at the exit of the museum. A sign above the box reads “This Museum is Not Free: Pay Whatever You Think It Is Worth”.

Wow. I think it’s worth a lot. Thank you Taxidermy Hall of Fame and Creation Museum of North Carolina. God bless you. And God Bless America.

(a few pics below if you’re interested)