West Virginia State Farm Museum

The West Virginia State Farm Museum is a collection of old buildings from around the state that have been reconstructed and filled with historic farming artifacts, along with lots and lots of taxidermy animals. 

There are two extensive collections of stuffed animals, both the life’s work of West Virginia residents with a love of hunting. One of the highlights is “General,” the largest taxidermy horse in the world. Standing well over six feet tall, General was a giant in life as well, weighing in at 2,850 pounds, the third-heaviest horse ever recorded.

The most exciting part of the museum is that you have no clue what you will find behind each closed door. Visitors are free to roam and explore, and there are many doors to choose from: Spread across 50 acres are dozens of buildings forming a reconstructed 19th-century American farming town. There’s an old schoolhouse, a working blacksmith shop, a doctor’s office, scores of old farming equipment, horses in the pasture, and the first Lutheran Church west of the Allegheny Mountains; reputedly the only church with a gun rack inside.