Matchstick Marvels Museum

Somewhere in a town of ~1,000 people on the Iowa prairie, a retired art teacher named Patrick Acton has been gluing wooden matchsticks together since the 1980s — and the result is one of the genuinely strangest small museums in America. His 80 completed models (nearly 10 million matchsticks total) include a 13-foot USS Iowa, a six-foot Minas Tirith, the Millennium Falcon, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Space Shuttle Challenger, and — unveiled April 2026 — a nine-foot Cinderella Castle made from 607,000 matchsticks and 2,800 hours of labor. Atlas Obscura, Roadside America, and Wikipedia all flag it; most Des Moines residents have never been. It's the kind of place you stumble on and immediately need to tell everyone about.

The move: Drive the 70 miles northeast on a weekday afternoon, arrive before 3pm so you have time to slowly circle every model and ask the volunteer docent which one took the most matchsticks — then grab pie somewhere in Tama County on the way back.

• 📍 Gladbrook (70 miles NE of Des Moines)
• 💸 $
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 319 2nd St, Gladbrook, IA 50635

Hours: Added 2026-06-09 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4

Verified 2026-06-09.