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Museum voted most popular ‘alternative’ landmark in Michigan

Ranks #8 nationally

Detroit Historical Museum. (WDIV)

DETROIT – The Detroit Historical Museum ranked as the best alternative landmark in Michigan.

A poll from Barefoot Yachts Indonesia, a luxury yacht company, surveyed 3,000 international travelers on what lesser-known American landmark they would most like to visit.

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The Detroit Historical Museum ranked #8 on the list nationally—the only Michigan location to make it in the top ten.

The museum, located on Kirby Street, was created after a chain of events originating from an attorney and historian, Clarence M Burton, donating a collection of historical papers to the Detroit Public Library in 1914.

Burton and 19 local historians came together and founded the Detroit Historical Society in 1921. After hiring a curator, the museum opened in 1928 and was known as the “highest museum in the world” since it was located in a room in today’s Cadillac Tower downtown. In 1951, the museum moved to its permanent location.

The museum displays cobblestone streets, 19th-century stores, an auto assembly line, toy trains and a fur trading post from the 1700s.

Here are the top 10 most popular “Alternative” landmarks nationwide:

  1. The Seven Magic Mountains, Las Vegas, Nevada
  2. The Pyramid Lake, Northeast of Reno, Nevada
  3. The International UFO Museum and Research Center, Roswell, New Mexico
  4. The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, Medora, North Dakota
  5. Little Wild Horse Canyon, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah
  6. The Old Slave Mart Museum, Charleston, South Carolina
  7. The Dunes, Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana
  8. The Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit, Michigan
  9. The Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, Washington
  10. The Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Carlsbad, New Mexico

An honorable mention, the Kitch-iti-kipi in the Upper Peninsula ranked #63 on the list.


About the Author
Samantha Sayles headshot

Samantha Sayles is an Oakland University alumna who’s been writing Michigan news since 2022. Before joining the ClickOnDetroit team, she wrote stories for WILX in Lansing and WEYI in Flint.

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