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21 reviews for Marsh's Free Museum
Review Highlights
"Sometimes you want a bucket of salt water taffy."
(in 5 reviews)
"Say hello to Jake the alligator man."
(in 4 reviews)
"...stuff to look at especially the old time penny arcade stuff."
(in 3 reviews)
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21 reviews in English
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Review from Justin I.
Seattle, WA
9/14/2011
Rebecca W., you must be FUUUUUN to go on vacation with! You don't sound like a horrible stick in the mud at all!
Marsh's FREE Museum is great. I'm not saying drive a thousand miles to get there, but if you're in the area it's definitely worth killing 45 minutes and seeing some of the weird stuff they have in there. I guess some people might prefer going to a place where they are playing a CD of someone playing the hammered dulcimer, and buy some scented candles or an upholstered magnet that shows two geese kissing and a sign that says "Home Sweet Home." Gimme the weird old rotting stuff in jars any day. -
Review from Pui S.
8/14/2011 2 photos
I heart Marsh's Free Museum & Jake the Alligator Man (Fake or real, I do not know & I do not care). ;)
Marsh's Free Museum is like a place where you can find anything intriguing & out of this world (kinda). lol
It's right at the center of the town. Your trip will not be completed, if you visiting Long Beach, WA but not stopping by and say hi to Jake the Alligator Man!!! hahaha -
Review from Rebecca W.
Hillsboro, OR
Ewww, what is that God-awful smell? Hmmm, maybe it's all the stuffed carcasses hanging from the ceiling? What a junk shop if I ever did see one! Holy crap; totally not my cup of tea. Disorganized junk shop. What else can I say? Well, they did have some neat old antique fortune teller-like machines; a nasty looking half man, half alligator thing; a shark complete with fake blood on its dried-up old teeth, and in the middle...salt water taffy. I can't even imagine buying and eating any food from this shop. It didn't feel, smell or look clean at all. Not a place to be serving food!! Yuck! I couldn't wait to get out of this place.
My boys, on the other hand, loved this place. Go figure. -
Review from Jeni M.
6/6/2011 1 Check-in Here
One fateful Saturday morning a couple of friends and I decided to venture North to find treasures in Long Beach. We had heard tales of folly, adventure, and buried treasures during Long Beach's summer city-wide garage sales.
Truth be told we found more folly than treasure at the garage sales, but that was ok because we stumbled upon Marsh's Free Museum!
Coastal towns are known for the tacky treasure troves, but Marsh's is the best that I've been to that I can think of. (Something kind of akin to Ripley's Belive It or Not in Newport, Oregon but FREE)
The building greets you with an odd assortment of whale vertebrae, chainsaw sculptures, and the timelessly inappropriate wooden Indian.
The minute you step in the door you're greeted by typical tourist shop meets-the Adams Family-meets an episode of Hoarders. Oh my lord! You could spend hours in this store sifting through the plethora of typical, tacky, and wacky.
Seashells your thing? Marsh's has you covered. Stupid t-shirts your thing? Marsh's. Shellacked pictures of wolves and eagles on pieces of drift wood? Again, Marsh's. Ancient dead stuffed cats, wildebeasts, tigers, birds, two headed calves your thing? Marsh's has all of these things and more!
Old time-y erotica machines, some weird machine that runs on it's own showing a little wooden man getting hanged, unfortunate and unrepentently non-PC things abound here.
All and all Marsh's made the entire trip to Long Beach worth it. Check it out and you will not be disappointed. Also you get a cute little seashell with every purchase.
A few other Long Beach Tips for the Americana/Weirdness Inclined:
- Make sure to walk across the street and get your picture taken with the World's Largest Clam Pan!!!
- Pinball a Game of Skill, which is also across the street and up the block, is a great place if you like pinball and has a weird old time-y western arcade shooting range
-Drive around the neighborhoods to see spectacular Victorians, strange architecture, and impossibly spooky shacks. -
Review from Jen K.
We've enjoyed this place for years, but it actually gets better as time goes by and our kids get into the swing of all the kitschy fun.
This time, they spent all our nickels on the old fashioned peepshow viewers that you used to find at old time arcades. And of course they had to 'test their passion factor' and loved all the funky items like the two-headed calf.
Jake is looking a little worse for wear. He used to be the main attraction, but really there are endless amounts of funky stuff to view at the free museum.Listed in: NW Coastal Favorites (Oregon…
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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2/1/2008
This is the height of wacky/tacky in Long Beach. This is a great place to get in touch with your… Read more »
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Review from Blorch H.
Soldotna, AK
10/22/2010
Yikes! This place is sooooo tacky and so much fun at the same time. It reminds me of the dime store I used to haunt in a past life, complete with hovering blue-haired ladies working the cash register.
If you've ever wanted to litter your house (or inflict it on others) with dust collectors or some remarkably un-politically-correct trinkets, look no further. -
Review from Tiffany S.
Seattle, WA
9/24/2007
Just my kind of place!
I was not going to leave the island without some salt water taffy so we popped in here. Also grabbed my nephew a shot glass with his name on it because, for some reason, he has a shot glass collection (he's 8). Can't believe I got my Christmas shopping done so quickly!
Bet this place is mobbed in the summer!Listed in: Here's where we've been when…
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Review from Andrew C.
10/6/2009
According to every other review, rows and rows of novelty trinkets is "as good as it gets." Really? What do your houses look like? I guess I'll jump on the 5 star bandwagon, too.
Coast towns up here are weird. They're all so dependent on selling what is essentially junk that you really don't need. That said, it's still super fun to browse through the aisles of said junk until you find some gems, or find some items that you might as well buy because you're amongst aisles upon aisles of junk.
Case in point, after an hour or so of browsing passed dead infant sharks in jars, model boats and other randomness, my shopping basket contained a bad ass pair of aviator sunglasses for the low price of $8, a bitchin' kite for $2.99 and what turned out to be a really crappy harmonica for $1.25.
If I could go back in time, I'd buy it all again.
Alright, maybe not the harmonica. -
Review from Michelle H.
Portland, OR
10/7/2009
You know what's cooler than perusing the crazy stuff in Marsh's Free Museum?
Perusing this stuff without any power. My latest trip really took the cake when the whole east side of the main street in Long Beach was out of power. All of the restaurants were closed, but not Marsh's. They opened their doors and let you wander around in nothing but the faint daylight pouring in through the front windows. It made everything a lot different, but almost just as fun.
The real bummer is you can't lose your pocket change in all of the random machines that are strewn about. Sometimes I just want to sit in the love chair for a quarter. Well, I do until some 8-year-olds jump on it once the power comes back on and get all giddy because the thing vibrates and tells them how much of a flirt they are. Then it kind of loses it's hilarity. You just kind of feel dirty afterward.
There are just as many things to buy as there are to look at. I have a feeling some of it it isn't encouraged to buy even if it does have a price on it. There was some "antique" looking glass plates. $22 for a plate? REALLY? I'm pretty sure I saw similar stuff at IKEA. You're not going here to buy anything like that, though. Sometimes you want your name on a flip flop keychain. Sometimes you want a bucket of salt water taffy. Sometimes you want a wind chime made of sea shells. Shark teeth? They have them. Children's toys? Have those too. It's so fun just to rifle through it all. I dare you to walk out without laughing at least once.
The power came on half way through to a bunch of cheering patrons in the store. Should you happen to checkout, be prepared to wait. It's definitely not a quick process.
You're at the beach, though. You shouldn't be in a hurry. -
Review from Anna B.
10/6/2009 2 photos
I'll jump on that 5-star bandwagon, too, 'cause I have definitely never been to a place like this before! There's a reason it is popular above and beyond just being the biggest store in town to buy souvenirs. Plus, it's been there since the 1930s, an institution in the town for sure.
I really, really, really dug the old timey mechanized gaming machines (and peepshows!). They also had an antique pinball machine... not quite pinball as we know it today, but a precursor, if you will.
There's crazy stuff to look at in every nook and cranny- don't miss the ceiling! Enough stuff hangs from that ceiling to have its own separate room. When we first got there, the power was out but that didn't stop us from carousing about, trying on "Women Love Me, Fish Fear Me" hats, sticking our hands into deep trays of tiny shells, and being thoroughly icked out by jars of tiny sharks. I held out hope that the power would again surge through, which it did, and the entire store let out a huge cheer when the store lit up and the arcade machines (fortune tellers, kiss-o-meters) flashed again.
It's a fun place to check out and free entertainment is my favorite kind. You can also pick up all sorts of tacky, silly junk like a personalized Long Beach shot glass and other typical souvenirs but go for the antiques for sure. I dunno about that Alligator Boy, though, I was standing right in front of it when the lights came back on and it scared the living bejeezus out of me. I'll stick to the "How Hot Are You" arcade game, thank you. -
Review from Harry K.
Monterey, CA
6/7/2010
OK, it's a tourist trap--but one with a soul.
Is it kitchy if it's not self-consciously so? I'm not sure. Regardless, it's a great place for kids and adults to wander around and look at, and even play with, all the great stuff.
Sadly, many of the old-timey amusement machines are out of order. That's too bad; I remember how much fun I had operating them when I was a kid. They have lots and lots of forgettable touristy stuff (junk?), but if you want/need such trinkets, this is the A-Number-One spot for them!
I love the salt-water taffy, and the free sea shells are fun for the kids.
No mention of Marsh's would be complete without Jake "The Fake" Alligator-Man. Even as a kid I knew that Jake was a crock, but I still had fun with Jake and the other oddities.
If you're in the area, you owe it to yourself, and your kids, to go. Have fun! -
Review from Jeff F.
San Francisco, CA
A trip to Long Beach is never complete with out a stop at Marsh's! It's a ye ol' curiosity shope with all sorts of odds and ends. There are lots of kitschy sea shell knick-knacks, kids souvenirs, saltwater taffy, grandma t-shirts and other oddities. It's filled with lots of side show games and displays. Say hello to Jake the alligator man! Test your passion factor in the vibrating red vinyl chair! Try not to get creeped out by the stuffed animal heads staring at you from everywhere! It's the one stop fun shop for all.
Listed in: Long Beach Washington…
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Review from Jenny K.
1/18/2010
Such a neat place! Spent the first hour of our trip here. Lots of random knick-knacks, stuffed animal heads, snacks, souvenirs, clothing, and more randomness!
I would love to come back and visit this place, as I'm sure I missed a ton of cool stuff in here - so much to see! -
Review from Florence C.
Renton, WA
7/11/2009
This is Long Beach's equivelant of Seattle's Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.
There is a fake alligator/human body in the back.
Good place for souveniers, there was a baby shark body floating in some blue liquid that was kind of cool, but kinda gross at the same time.
I'm not too into these gift shops, they didn't have anything really exclusive to Long Beach though, seashells, taffy, little glass figurines, and some other stuff. You could probably pick up half the stuff in there from your own local gift shop!
I mean, I guess you gotta go once when your in town, but I think this place is overrated! -
Review from Kelly J.
Seattle, WA
4/7/2010
This is one place we almost always go into when we visit Long Beach.
Kitschy, quirky, touristy, and silly all at once, we love this place. They even have an orange tabby "store kitty"! You might find her sleeping amongst the folded t-shirts, as I did. She looked mildly amused at my startled face.
You can get all manner of gifts here as well as peruse Jake, the alligator/man creature that is Long Beach's goofy symbol. There are also some cool antique vending/game machines in here.
Definitely a fun place to visit, especially if you have kids. Expect to pay tourist prices. -
Review from chris y.
Seattle, WA
8/5/2009
The reviews don't lie. This place pretty much is Long Beach.
Aisles of random stuff, mummified freaks, toys, test your ___ machines, all FREE... What's not to love?
If you're staying in Long Beach, you've definitely got to bring the whole family through hear. Find that little souvenir the kids have to have (you know you're going to have to get it somewhere).
Just be sure to bring the camera. -
Review from S S.
Everett, WA
8/9/2009
Ooh this place looked interesting! And, we had all kinds of legal fun inside and left without spending a dime! The best kind of dive, tourist traps -- FREE!
Warning: If you have a crow-like impulse to gather future clutter, you will leave with armloads of stuff no one needs. -
Review from Amber H.
Browns Point, WA
6/15/2009
I hope Marsh's stays in Long Beach forever! I absolutely love that tacky place! A trip to the town isn't complete without going to Marsh's and picking up some saltwater taffy and something tacky!
Listed in: Born to Shop
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Review from Tiffany T.
Beaverton, OR
12/29/2006 8 photos
This tourist trap is full of trinkets, old music machines, other oddities like the 2 headed calf, shrunken heads, a fortune telling machine and Jake the 1/2 man & 1/2 gator. I love this place, absolutely love it! It's full of some of the tackiest stuff on earth; like the love seat where if you sit and put in a quarter it will let you know if you're a red hot lover or a cold fish. Where else can you buy a clamshell clock for your desk? There's penny candy, old fashioned flip card viewing machines, some very early mechanical video games and so much more. It's a fun place to spend your pocket change and pick up a souvenir to remember your trip to the beach. This store/museum has been around a long time and I hope it continues to be around for years. I loved this place as a child and hope to bring my children there someday. Located in Long Beach Washington right downtown!
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Review from Lydia K.
Rocklin, CA
2/24/2010
I HATE touristy stores, BUT this place is absolutely cool! It has so much neat and unusual stuff to look at especially the old time penny arcade stuff. I could have spent a couple of hours in there easily and I usually gag at those stores... AND, best of all, their prices were cheaper than any other stores on that block. The salt water taffy was a dollar less per pound. I bought a walking stick for the b.f. and it was only $12.95 with leather handle and hanger... nice. I also got a free seashell at checkout, nice touch. My boys loved all the strange things like the human alligator thing... pretty gross. They had a bunch of stuff animal heads on the wall too. Very cool place and good prices, I'm so there.
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Review from Melanie L.
Tustin, CA
8/19/2009
This place is waaaay cool. My boyfriend told me we had to drive a half hour out of the way to go to Marsh's and I'm glad we did. We say Jake the Alligator boy and used up all of our change on the quirky machines and nickelodeons. And we walked out paying under $15 (we did buy a poster). I almost gave 4 stars because a bunch of the machines were out of order but even without them, it was still totally worth seeing. A good shopper could probably spend hours in here.
