castlerock museum

Who would have thought that there would be an arms and armor museum in the small city of Alma? This museum is not on the Hwy 35, but 1 block east on South 2nd Street. The museum is only open for specific hours and there is an adult admission rate of $6 and child is $4. Overall the museum is not that large, however there is an upstairs and downstairs and a lot of pieces to look at and read about. If you go I would recommend checking out their website and look at the special events http://www.castlerockmuseum.com/main/events.php. During our visit there was an armor demonstration which discussed each piece of armor that someone would wear into battle, it was very detailed however it could have been shorter. The young kids seemed to loose interest, until it was time to suit someone up.Overall this was a nice place to visit and is worth a stop if you're in the area.

On a daytrip with my 2 boys and a neighbor boy down along the Mississippi River, we decided to make a stop at the Castlerock Museum in Alma. I knew in advance that it was only open Fri & Sat 1-4 pm, so that affected the date/time of our trip. We were greeted by 3 men who worked there and were very friendly. We could take pictures (without the flash) and started the "self-guided" tour (there are placards in front of each display to read through). But the 3 boys (ages 8 & 9) started asking questions and so one of the men (the older gentlemen) actually took us through the entire museum (2 small floors) and continually told us stories and answered the boys' questions. We were fortunate that very few other people were there at the time and so we got lots of attention. After seeing all the different period displays (armor, weapons, shields, etc. you name it), the younger male took the boys into a little theater area to a "show and tell". These items were able to be touched and the male was passionate about the time period and told us lots of good info. One of my boys tried on a chain mail helmet and they were able to touch some swords, etc. The museum is relatively small, reasonably priced and very unique. This is America and so obviously the whole knight/armor/weapons thing is foreign to us and even in the Twin Cities where we are from, there is nothing like this to visit. I really recommend! It was the highlight of the day for these 3 little boys and I even enjoyed it! We spent just under one hour there - which was much longer than I expected.

Do go here...you will not be disappointed. The place is more amazing than its small effort to promote itself implies...