the barn museum

We stopped here on a tour of the Amana colonies. Located in a drafty barn, the day we arrived it was cold inside and out. The present owner is the son of the craftsman that made all of the small buildings. We started our self guided tour and soon found ourselves laughing. Many of the plastic people in the scenes had fallen down and there were cobwebs from them to the buildings or the scale sized streets. Many of the buildings seemed quite similar as well. There was one larger barn that seemed to have interior details but I wasn't sure as when I bent over I could see a large light bulb inside the barn that either hadn't been turned on or was burned out. Cobwebs were everywhere. You exit through a gift area that has nothing to do with the museum and, true to the rest of the museum, 2 large dolls in boxes were for sale but one had fallen out of it's box a long time ago and languished on it's face, covered in dust. The entry fee is $3.50 but I wouldn't spend the money to go back.

Fascinating collection built many years ago now. Attention to detail was amazing. I'm always fascinated by what people decide to do with their time and talent. And this is a good example. The only reason that I didn't give five stars is because the collection is now aged and showing it. Cobwebs and dust. Miniature people fallen over. It's not like their isn't a lull in the crowds. This detracts to some degree. The son runs the operation and contributed 3-4 buildings of his own which seem oddly out of place when compared to his prolific father. The family is rightfully proud of what pop accomplished but resting on his efforts.Still worth a visit.

We loved this place. I don't know if it was the amazing capacity for one man to have dedicated so much time to building these homes/barns/towns or the fact that we had been shopping in the Colonies all day and it was a great reprieve. Either way this place was amazing. I loved reading about the history behind each of the creations. There were so many across the two floors of the museum. Admission was beyond reasonable for how much you got to see. To me this was the best thing we got to see the whole day. I would say if this is your first time going to the colonies to either do this first or last because you will get to see some of the actual buildings in the colonies. I think it made me appreciate it even more.

The miniatures that you see in this little museum are fantastic! Kudos to this family for sharing their treasures with us! A definite must see you you are visiting Amana Colonies

What a great surprise to find this place. Our kids love anything "minature" so when we heard about The Barn we decided to stop. The craftsmanship, detail, time and effort that went into building these displays is amazing. We are not talking about a few scale model barns and houses. There are hundreds of structures put together in very well thought out themed displays. This place is great and well worth the stop.

This was our second visit to the museum, but our first since we've had kids. Our 4 and 6 year old boys were along this time. The collection is mostly built by one man, and mostly during the 70's and early 80's when he died. He had a passion for creating extremely detailed 1:12 scale miniatures of farmstead settings, small town streets, lumber camps, and the like, to detail the past - mostly from the time period of late 1800's to early 1900's. When we visited, the man's son was at the front desk and gave us a brief verbal history before sending us loose to see the displays. The museum itself is in an old Amana horse barn which itself is pretty historical. Our kids seemed to enjoy it but were a bit too young to take in the effort required to make such detailed displays. They're more into the interactive type of stuff - if they'd add some push buttons or something to light up the buildings or change the scenes slightly, then they'd have been more on-board. But this is definitely worth a stop and the low admission price.