Treasures too sparsely labeled to identify greet visitors that peek through the front door.

Experimental Balloon and Airship Museum

Post Mills, Vermont

The Experimental Balloon and Airship Museum, also known as Brian's Museum of Rusty Dusty Stuff and The Scrap Palace, was the decades-in-the-making packrat collection of the late Brian Boland (1949-2021), airship designer, balloon pilot, creator of the Vermontasaurus, and owner of Post Mills Airport, which is where the museum is located. It's a cavernous, multi-story structure, lit only by sunlight filtering through its windows. Brian lived somewhere deep in the recesses of the building, and assembled his airships in an upstairs loft.

The late Brian Boland points to three signs, one for each of his museum's names.

Brian was proudest of what he said are the almost 150 experimental airships in the museum -- the largest collection in the world, he said -- but they're difficult to see among all of his other treasures. Some were found by spotting them from his hot air balloon -- and Brian died in a fall from a hot air balloon he was piloting in 2021.

The museum has outboard motors, old cars and abandoned fire trucks, clocks, dolls, laundry irons, beer and liquor bottles, bicycles, wicker baskets, plastic lawn flamingos, a Polaroid collection, a SPAM collection, motorcycles, road signs, old dental equipment, a sculpture made of hundreds of crutches, and a life preserver labelled "USS Titanic." Some are grouped into neat arrangements, others hang from rafters, still others are tossed about haphazardly. Explanatory signs are rare; several are just a "?????" series of question marks. Brian told us that he loved it when people gave him a machine or device that he couldn't identify.

One of almost 150 experimental airships in Brian's collection.

Not the RMS Titanic, but close enough.

Because the building does not meet Vermont's strict public safety standards, it's a private museum and off-limits to the public. But in an effort to share it with visitors, Brian built a series of Dutch half-doors into the building. People can stand outside, lean on the door sills, and view the collection inside. "It's like an aquarium," Brian said.

Large signs next to the doors warn, No Entry Without Permission of the Director. But a few chosen tourists did sometimes get to go inside. Brian told us that if he was working at the airport, he'd size up visitors who'd come to see the Vermontasaurus. "If I feel they're worthy -- if they spend a lot of time at the dinosaur -- then I'll invite them into my museum," he said. "I'll tell them, "The director just gave you permission to go in there. Now don't piss him off!'"