Tourists often overlook a small museum, thinking it won’t be worth the time and money to stop in and visit. Sometimes it isn’t. But other times, you can be pleasantly surprised and even quite impressed with a small museum!

These are three of the best smaller museums out there. If you find yourself nearby, they are each worth visiting!

The Tower Museum
Mission Point Resort
6633 Main Street
Mackinac Island, Michigan 49757

At first you may think you are paying admission to climb to the top of the observation tower to get a bird’s eye view of the Straits of Michigan. That would be fantastic in itself, if that was all you got to see. But instead, The Tower Museum offers an amazing array of exhibits, exploring the history of Mission Point Resort, filming the movie Somewhere in Time (the cult classic starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), building the Mackinac Bridge, Michigan lighthouses, Great Lakes shipping vessels and shipwrecks. The best part of the entire museum is the translucent panels on the shipwreck floor that are backlit by the sun! You are completely surrounded by blue and green light, making it feel as if you are actually on a dive to a shipwreck.

College Park Aviation Museum
1985 Corporal Frank Scott Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740

The College Park Aviation Museum is a gem! It is located on the grounds of the oldest continuously operating airport in the country. From a wall of windows overlooking the airstrip, visitors can see the very spot where the Wright Brothers trained the first military aviators. Bernetta Miller, the 5th woman in the country to earn her pilot’s license, demonstrated the monoplane for the US government on the same spot in 1912. The museum includes a well-designed recreation of the Wright’s bicycle shop, complete with animatronic figures.

Dossin Great Lakes Museum
100 Strand Drive, Belle Isle
Detroit, Michigan 48207

Operated by the Detroit Historical Society, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum preserves the history of the Great Lakes and the Detroit River. Visitors can board the actual pilot house of the USS William Clay Ford, which has been incorporated into the museum building. A well done professional exhibition chronicles how the waterways of the region contributed to the economic and social development of Detroit.