Entry No. 24 — the Wichita file — filed under: oddities
McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation
A free, 26,000-square-foot small-town gem where a local bank president's obsessions accumulated into something genuinely strange: a full Ice Age Harlan's ground sloth skeleton, the first man-made diamond (created right here in McPherson in 1926, decades before GE claimed the feat), cultural artifacts from around the world, and an African Room built around big-game taxidermy — though the rumored MGM lion skin has been pulled from public display since 2016. Rated the #1 attraction in McPherson with recent visitor reviews through late 2025 calling it a surprising find.
The move: Spend a free afternoon working through all four floors — start with the Ice Age fossils and try to find the synthetic diamond display (you may need a magnifier), then wind through the African Room taxidermy and Civil War artifacts upstairs, and finish by letting one person narrate the model train layout while the other browses the Birger Sandzen lithographs; grab coffee or a late lunch afterward at one of McPherson's downtown spots, which is only a few blocks away.
📍 Before you go This is a day trip: McPherson sits roughly an hour north of Wichita up I-135, and the museum is a purpose-built modern facility (opened in the 2010s) on E Kansas Avenue, the town's main east-west corridor, with its own free on-site parking lot — easy to pull right up to. Admission is free, and being fully indoors it's a reliable rain-or-winter option. Plan around the weekday-and-Saturday window, since it's typically closed Sundays (confirm before driving up). Downtown McPherson is only a few blocks west, so park once and walk over for coffee or a meal afterward.
- 📍 McPherson
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1111 E Kansas Ave, McPherson, KS 67460
Hours: Mined 2026-06-07 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Tripadvisor · Roadside America
last checked: 2026-06-07