Explore these offbeat museums

We’ve spent a lot of time here at the Better Life blog talking about the amazing museums you can visit in Oklahoma City to better understand the cultures that call our community home, but there are plenty of offbeat museums if you want to venture off the beaten path. Escape the chill of winter by visiting some of these quirky destinations.

In historic Stockyards City, learn more about the venomous snake that still roams the Wild West at the OKC Rattlesnake Museum. Featuring a selection of rattlesnakes from the United States, all of the venomous snakes of Oklahoma, venomous lizards, and more, the museum is a safe opportunity to view these amazing animals up close. Learn more.

Historic Stockyards City also offers a museum dedicated to one of the equine world’s oldest trades: horseshoeing. The National Museum of Horseshoeing Tools offers an educational glimpse of the tools, life and products in the horseshoers' world. Learn more.

If musical instruments are more your speed, then head to Bricktown and visit the American Banjo Museum. The museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting the music and heritage of "America's instrument,” the banjo. The museum is  packed with examples of its namesake instrument, ranging from the fanciest to the simplest, and even one played by Kermit The Frog. There are monthly lunchtime banjo performances as well. Learn more.

For the communications aficionados, the Oklahoma Museum of Telephone History in downtown Oklahoma City features telephone items dating from 1900 through the present. Displays include switchboards, crank wall phones, decorator phones and a collection of tools your ancestors may have used. The museum also offers hands-on items for children. Learn more.

Oklahoma City is also home to a museum that honors a major player in transportation history: the railroad. The Oklahoma Railway Museum features freight cars, passenger cars, and a real steam engine on display, and the museum operates its trains on the first and third Saturdays of the month in April through August. Learn more.

What are some of your favorite quirky museums in the OKC area? Let us know in the comments!