Denver, Colorado: Forney Transportation Museum: Amelia Earhart's Car

Unfortunately, that museum has been closed down (as of January, 1999) and the building is now owned by REI (the big outdoor equipment retailer). Yet another kooky piece of our collective conscience gone the way of the DoDo. From what I heard, the museum was very poorly managed and had next to zero income.

Cannibal Sights at the Forney Transportation Museum, Denver, CO: A large collection of old automobiles, horse-drawn carriages, trains and other curiosities, spread out in an unorganized, haphazard fashion.

In the museum's inadequately lit basement, past the somewhat less-respected old cars and motorcycles, past the extensive N-gauge model railroad, you'll be treated to the sight of an 8x8 foot life-size diorama of a crazed-looking and rather dusty Alferd Packer, pictured not long after finishing his infamous meal, surrounded by charred human bones and hair. There's a little sign explaining the basics of the Alferd Packer story, but nothing else to explain why it's in the museum. It's really disconcerting to see this graphic display within a few feet of a giant model train setup. Of course, when you notice that one of the tiny cute buildings in the train set is labeled "Alferd A. Packer Meat Processing Co.", the location makes a little more sense.

Elsewhere in the museum, you'll find Amelia Earhart's Car, accompanied by signs explaining an impressive conspiracy theory about how she was not actually lost at sea, but was killed by the Japanese as a spy.

"Then there was the time at the very dusty and cracked Forney Museum of Denver (which repeatedly exhorts everyone not to touch anything!) when a friend and I saw Amelia Earhart's car. A woman nearby said, 'Is that the car she disappeared in?'"