Matt Alford and Julie Agee.

Eyegore's Curiosities and Monster Museum

Cawker City, Kansas

Matt Alford and Julie Agee embarked on a cross-country road trip in 2020 -- from Virginia and heading west. As they explored America's wonders, the pair mused about someday opening their own offbeat attraction along Route 66. They detoured off of the Mother Road just to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas... and were so smitten that that's where they decided to stay. The pair opened Eyegore's Curiosities and Monster Museum in April 2021 (name adjusted in Sept. 2022).

In addition to the expected skeletons and skulls, the museum displays a wall of "Rear View" butt taxidermy, a tribute to The Bride of Frankenstein, something that resembles a desiccated Bigfoot, and a space-alien-in-a-jar that's hooked up to vintage machinery from Roswell. Adding to the peculiarity of the place is that it's also the official outlet for World's Largest Ball of Twine t-shirts and souvenirs, and a dispenser of officially-sanctioned sisal twine for travelers who want to add to the Ball, which squats under its roofed shelter only a half-block away.

The museum also displays the original artwork Starry Twine Ball Night, a van Gogh homage painted by Cawker City resident Cher Olsen back in the 1990s. Matt told us he plans to create a scavenger hunt map to lead visitors to Olsen's other surviving Twine Ball masterpieces around town, which, the last time we checked, included American Twine Ball Gothic and The Twine Ball Scream.