Well this has to be a one and only thing... a salt and pepper shaker museum? If you think I am lying to you that this place actually exists, I am not AND it is in Iowa!

We all know when going to buy salt and pepper shakers from the store that most of us are just boring people who go for generic cheap looking ones. However I have recently learned that we are missing out on a whole other world of salt and pepper shakers... actually a whole history of them! But thanks to Iowan Ruth Rasmussen, these pieces of history won't disappear into oblivion.

The Traer Salt & Pepper Shaker Gallery is home to more than 16,000 salt and pepper shakers! That's actually more than how many residents there are of Traer. It all started when Ruth purchased a set of salt and pepper shakers back in 1946 to commemorate her trip to the Chicago Brookfield Zoo. This quickly became a collection in her life that would lead her to create one of the largest collections of salt and pepper shakers in the world that is still being added to today!

Thousands come every year from all around just to take a step in the past and see these unique items. The gallery has shakers ranging from your favorite cartoon characters to holiday shakers to animals to nuts to food... basically anything that you could imagine that could be turned into a shaker is here. There are so many that the gallery is packed and arranged three to four shelves deep from ceiling to floor and they are STILL growing. In fact, not only do they have more than 16,000 sets on the floor but they have another 12,000 waiting in storage that have been collected or donated!

So if you are looking for a little weekend trip, I suggest checking out the Midwest's largest shaker collection at the Traer Salt & Pepper Shaker Gallery.

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