Phoenix, Arizona: Rock Food - Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum (Closed)

Worth the admission price just for "Rock Food," a dinner table display where all of the food is made of rocks.

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum's "Rock Food" display -- stones and crystals arranged to look like tasty meals, might be in trouble.

The Mineral Museum has been shuttered by the state. For reasons that remain obscure, the administration of Gov. Jan Brewer has disliked this genuinely loved attraction for years. First it was announced that the rock museum -- and rocks are a big deal in Arizona -- would be gutted and turned into an "Arizona Centennial Museum" as a "birthday present" to Arizona. Apparently no one outside the governor's office liked the idea, so the Centennial Museum proposal vanished three months ago and was replaced by "The Arizona Experience," a blobby concept that would barely fill a brochure at a Welcome Center. Arizona pledged that the Mineral Museum would stay open at least until the end of the school year -- raising hopes that the state was looking for a way out of its self-made mess. But on May 1 Arizona abruptly shut the Mineral Museum down.