When most people hear the term “creation museum,” they likely think of Ken Ham’s well-known Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. However, scattered across the United States lies a surprising variety of smaller, lesser-known creation museums, often reflecting the unique perspectives and interpretations of their founders, creating a diverse patchwork of exhibits and claims about Earth’s history blended with all the charm of roadside kitsch.
My own journey with creation museums began when I first shifted from young-earth creationism to old-earth creationism (and eventually to evolutionary creationism). At the time, my family—hoping to change my mind—encouraged me to visit Carl Baugh’s Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas. They assured me that Baugh was a legitimate scientist and that his museum would present the evidence I needed to return to a young-earth perspective. While that experience didn’t persuade me to change my beliefs, it did spark a lasting fascination with creation museums. Over time, I’ve come to see them as a sort of “Mystery Shack” phenomenon—quirky, out-of-the-way destinations, museums of the weird, filled with curious exhibits and claims that are as intriguing as they are questionable.
As I began researching young-earth creationism more deeply, I noticed a distinct gap in the resources available on these museums – there was no centralized source that showed off their exhibits or responded to their messages. This realization planted the first seeds of what would eventually become Creationism Across America, which at its core is a labor of love combining both of the above interests. Over the next several years my team and I plan to visit and document as many creation museums in the United States as we can (at the time of writing, we’ve got over twenty on our map). Our aims are twofold: to photograph and showcase the museums through video tours, giving viewers a first hand look at the layout and content, exhibits, messaging, and overall experience, etc. Along the way we’ll rank and compare/contrast those we enjoyed and those that left something to be desired. Second, we will compile catalogs of the museum’s claims where we review the accuracy of their claims for those wanting to go further in depth than the lighter responses in the video tours.
As of now, we have already filmed several museums for the 2024-2025 season, with editing underway and a road trip planned to capture additional locations. Our goal is to release episodes monthly, though scheduling constraints may mean substituting past reviews with fresh commentary until we’re able to resume filming in early 2025.
The Creation Evidence Museum (Glen Rose, TX) – Founded by Carl Baugh, focuses on human-dinosaur coexistence based on alleged human tracks found with dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River, along with a number of other archeological anomalies.
The Abilene Discovery Center (Abilene, TX) – Was Nefertiti a nephilim? Did giants with four rows of teeth once roam the American plains? This smaller creation museum isn’t afraid to delve into the fringe to build its case against evolution.
The ICR Discovery Center (Dallas, TX) – The Institute for Creation Research’s modern, state-of-the-art museum that covers all major creationist bases, from creation and Noah’s Flood up to ongoing in-house research meant to dispel the evolutionary narrative.
The Chardin Collective 
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