Nevada’s Weirdest Museums: Clown Motels, Atomic History, and Burro-Powered Oddities

Categories: Nevada, Museums

By Westward Vibes

Nevada’s Weirdest Museums: Clown Motels, Atomic History, and Burro-Powered Oddities

Buckle up, fellow weirdos — Nevada doesn’t do museums halfway. In a state where the night sky glows, the desert hides ghost towns, and the roadside attractions outnumber the rest stops, the museums are exactly as unhinged as you’d hope. We’re talking a motel stuffed with thousands of clowns next to a pioneer cemetery, a shrine to the atomic age a few blocks off the Strip, ghostly sculptures melting into the Mojave, and one of the most haunted houses in America. Pack your curiosity (and maybe a nightlight) — let’s dive into the strangest halls of history in the Silver State.

The Clown Motel — Tonopah

Yes, it’s real, and yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The world-famous Clown Motel in Tonopah opened in 1985 and grew out of one family’s enormous clown collection — thousands of figurines, paintings, statues, and memorabilia that now fill the lobby and every one of the motel’s 31 horror-themed rooms. The kicker? It sits directly beside the Old Tonopah Cemetery, where miners and settlers from the town’s rough-and-tumble boom years are buried. The combination of wall-to-wall clowns, a pioneer graveyard next door, and a steady stream of paranormal reports (whispers, shadow figures, doors with minds of their own) has made this place a legend among ghost hunters and roadside-attraction nerds alike.

Here’s the beautiful part: you don’t have to sleep here to enjoy it. The lobby doubles as a free clown museum, and it’s open to gawkers daily. Brave souls can book one of the themed rooms — each decorated with its own clown art — and the motel leans all the way into its reputation, even issuing guests a good-natured warning about potential paranormal activity.

• Location: 521 N Main St, Tonopah, NV 89049
• Hours: The lobby museum is open daily, 8:30 a.m.–11 p.m.
• Admission: Browsing the lobby clown collection is free; room rates are budget-friendly — check the official website for current pricing.

Pro Tip: Swing through in October, when the motel leans into spooky season and books up fast. And bring a camera — the giant clown cutouts out front are a mandatory road-trip photo.

The Atomic Museum — Las Vegas

A few blocks east of the Strip, the Atomic Museum (formally the National Atomic Testing Museum) documents one of the most mind-bending chapters of American history: the nuclear testing program at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. This is a Smithsonian affiliate and one of the few Congressionally mandated national museums in the country, packing more than 3,500 artifacts and 16,000 photographs into 8,000 square feet of exhibits.

The undisputed showstopper is the Ground Zero Theater, a simulated above-ground atomic blast complete with rumbling seats and flashing light — it’s genuinely intense. History nerds will geek out over a replica of the Trinity gadget, a massive nuclear rocket reactor, a piece of the Berlin Wall, and even a pop-culture exhibit on the Fallout video game franchise. Many of the docents are former Test Site employees, so if you spot one, get them talking — their insider stories are the best part of the visit.

• Location: 755 E Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89119
• Hours: Check the official website for current hours.
• Admission: Check the official website for current admission; discounts are typically available for Nevada residents, seniors, students, military, and first responders.

Pro Tip: Give yourself at least two hours, and don’t skip the Ground Zero Theater — it’s the reason people come, and it earns its reputation.

Goldwell Open Air Museum — Rhyolite

Just outside the ghost town of Rhyolite, about four miles west of Beatty, the desert floor sprouts something you will not see coming: a free, open-air sculpture park where Belgian artist Albert Szukalski and friends planted surreal masterpieces in the Mojave. Szukalski created the park’s first works in 1984, molding ghostly life-size figures by draping plaster-soaked burlap over live models — the result is his famous The Last Supper, a spectral twelve-apostles tableau that looks like it materialized straight out of the heat haze.

Wander the grounds and you’ll also meet Ghost Rider (a phantom about to mount a bicycle), Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada (a 25-foot-tall pink cinder-block woman), and Tribute to Shorty Harris — a 24-foot steel prospector standing beside a penguin, honoring one of the miners whose 1904 strike sparked the local gold rush. Newer pieces keep arriving, the Red Barn hosts an arts festival called Albert’s Tarantella every October, and wild burros are known to wander through the area, photobombing visitors with zero shame.

• Location: Off State Highway 374, about 4 miles west of Beatty (mailing: 1 Golden St, Beatty, NV 89003)
• Hours: The sculpture park is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; visitor center hours vary.
• Admission: Free — donations are encouraged.

Pro Tip: Go at golden hour or after dark with a flashlight. The sculptures take on a whole new personality under moonlight, and you’ll have the place nearly to yourself.

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum — Las Vegas

If the Clown Motel is Nevada’s spookiest roadside stop, this is its big-city cousin with a Hollywood budget. Ghost Adventures star Zak Bagans has filled the historic 1938 Wengert Mansion with more than 30 rooms of haunted and cursed objects — including the infamous Dybbuk Box, billed as the world’s most haunted object, plus artifacts from the Demon House, Dr. Kevorkian’s death van, and serial-killer memorabilia. USA Today’s 10Best readers have voted it the country’s top haunted destination six years running.

Fair warning: this is not a casual stroll. Tours are guided, every visitor signs a waiver acknowledging the disturbing nature of some exhibits, and the whole experience is designed to rattle you. It’s also wildly popular, so walk-ins are a gamble.

• Location: 600 E Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89104
• Hours: Open Wednesday–Monday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Check the official website for current hours.
• Admission: Check the official website for current ticket prices and age policy before you go.

Pro Tip: Book tickets online in advance — tours frequently sell out, especially around Halloween. Eat beforehand; the RIP all-access tour is not for the faint of heart.

From killer clowns to atomic blasts to ghost sculptures in the sand, Nevada’s weird museums prove one thing: the Silver State has never been interested in boring. Which one are you brave enough to visit first?