Marshall, Michigan is home to eight distinctive museums that collectively tell a story that is far reaching and even a bit magical. We have collected information about each of the museums, with links to more official information. We also created a map of the locations of the museums, and we invite our readers to come out for Marshall Tourism Day – free museum day – on Saturday May 20, 2017. Marshall Tourism Day is an annual event, but it might not always be the third Saturday of May, and all eight of the museums might not be free on future years.
Typically the museums in Marshall cost about $5 each per person to go in. As is a tradition for many families across Michigan however, it is free to drive by, walk around the outside, and read the free historical markers. Also, some of them have an entrance fee by donation. Please be sure to check an official source for all Marshall tourism information: www.ChooseMarshall.com
- Honolulu House Museum in Marshall Michigan
- American Museum of Magic
- Governor’s Mansion Museum
- Capitol Hill School Museum, Marshall Michigan
- United States Postal Museum
- GAR Hall Museum
- Walter’s Gasoline Museum
- Calhoun County Fair
While there are several ways to take a tour of the Museums of Marshall Michigan, there are two official sources of information about Marshall Museums.
One is the Marshall Historical Society: www.marshallhistoricalsociety.org/attractions
Another one is the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance: https://choosemarshall.com/
For more unofficial information, check out the Google map below that pinpoints the locations of all eight museums, and has photos too. Or click on one of the thumbnails to see more official information about each of the unique museums!
There is also a fascinating conjecture at the bottom of this page with a claim to fame for Marshall that is currently not mentioned anywhere. Until now.
The map below shows the locations of these museums:
- Honolulu House Museum
- American Museum of Magic
- Governor’s Mansion Museum
- US Post Office Museum
- Marshall Historical Museum / GAR Hall
- Capitol Hill School Museum
- Walter’s Gasoline Museum
- Calhoun County Museums
Click the little box in the upper corner of the map below to see the index. Click on a marker to see the photo and information. Close the info box and click on the plus or minus sign to zoom in or out.
You can also copy this link and send it to yourself in a text so you can keep this handy map with you for your tour!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13BQ1zi4c09UytHn286sJ3A5BiCk&usp=sharing
We suspect that Marshall has more museums per capita than any city in the United States.
To test this theory, we are Googled this question:
Q- Which city has the most museums per capita in the United States?
A- We see there is a pre-existing discussion about this on Quora:
https://www.quora.com/Which-city-has-the-most-museums-per-capita
Maybe later we will post about Marshall to that site. But what we see they are saying is, that Washington, D.C. has 80 museums having the most museums per capita with a population of 670,000. (Our calculator says this is 8,735 residents for each museum.)
They also list Florence, Italy. (Not quite in the United States any more, but let’s go with this.) With a population of 383,083, and 72 museums. This is one museum per 5,320 residents.
Marshall, Michigan, with 8 museums, and 7,088 residents, has one museum per 866 residents. We realize that to beat this record, a small town with less than 866 residents could have one museum, but still this is a great claim to fame. A city with less than 866 residents would probably be a village, or a town, not a city. So this is most likely true, that Marshall Michigan has more museums per capita than any city in the United States, and possibly in the world.
Albion also has a claim of more parks per capita, as you can see from this page.
And learn about Free Museum Days in Albion! www.albionmich.net/free-museum-days/