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Back in November, Brian and I took a massive road trip from our hometown of St. Louis, MO to Montana. We weren’t really planning on doing much filming during the trip, but as we were driving through Idaho on our way back home, we saw a sign for something we KNEW we had to show you guys… the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho!
Most of you probably know that we started out our whole food, plant-based lifestyle by eating nothing but plain potatoes for two weeks, so as soon as we saw the sign, we knew we had to check it out. It was about an hour of extra driving, but there’s no way we could pass this up.
They’ve got a giant potato out front, a potato cafe, SO much potato themed memorabilia, plus a gift shop & more! It was quite the educational experience for us and it definitely made us more appreciative of the humble potato. Watch a video of our visit here and read on below for more information and photos!
The museum is located along US Highway 91 and was established in 1988 in a building that was originally a railroad depot. This is pretty cool, because we found out later that the railway is one of the major reasons Idaho is known for potatoes.
Outside the building, we were greeted with the most massive potato I’ve ever seen!
It was topped with butter and sour cream, but we’ll let it slide. 😉
The giant potato even had a really cool stand across from it that you could put a camera or phone on to get the PERFECT shot with all of its potato-y glory.
They also have a nice collection of potato harvesters and other equipment, including this 1940’s “Oliver” version named after our dog. 😁
We were excited to get inside and check everything out!
Admission will cost you $6 per adult or $3 for kids. Peef got in for free.
The first room of the museum goes into detail about the origins of the potato and how they made their way to Idaho.
One of the really cool people we learned about was Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who became a vocal promoter of the potato as a food source for France and throughout Europe in the late 1700s. He was actually captured by the Prussians during the Seven Years’ War, and while he was in prison in Prussia he ate nothing but potatoes, which were known to the French only as animal feed at the time. When he got back, he did everything he could to spread the word about potatoes!
The next room was full of every kind of potato memorabilia you can imagine. From baking spikes and potato nails to comic books and license plates, they had it all!
I was really fascinated by all of the old potato baking memorabilia like the “Tater Baker.” It’s weird to think that someday these kind of museums will include things like air fryers and people down the road will think those are funny looking.
The museum is home to the largest potato crisp ever made, as declared by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991. The crisp measures 25×14 inches (Peef for scale) and comes in at 920 calories.
Up next, we checked out the Potato Cinema, which had four different short films to choose from. I really enjoyed watching the video about potato harvesting. I want to see it happen in person some day!
Down in “The Cellar,” they’ve even got singing potatoes!
Although they are a bit creepy, it was a cute and fun transition to the next section of the museum.
They’ve got more farming equipment and the “Potato Lab” in the next section.
The lab was full of science experiments, computer games and other fun for kids, including a massive collection of Mr. & Mrs. Potato Heads. Of course during the pandemic, a lot of these features are shut down, but it would be a great place to take your kids in the future.
You can’t come to the Idaho Potato Museum without checking out their giant wall of potato mashers! Although not officially sanctioned by the Guinness Book of World Records, I’m pretty sure they’ve got the largest collection anywhere.
After all of this exploring, we were hungry and guess what? It was time for…
Yep, you guessed it… BAKED POTATOES!
The “Potato Station Cafe,” located in the museum, serves up baked potatoes, fries, potato soup, potato ice cream, potato rolls… potato everything!
We couldn’t resist the chance to eat a plain baked potato in Idaho.
Mmmm… tasty plain potato!
After eating, we checked out the gift shop and stocked up on potato pins, stickers, postcards, t-shirts and more.
They even use potato sacks as bags for your purchases!
Thanks for joining us on this fun adventure! Be sure to check out the video and let us know what you think of the museum. You can learn more at idahopotatomuseum.com.
