SPAM Museum

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"SPAMTOWN U.S.A." a.k.a. Austin, Minnesota

Whether you use Spam a little or, as they do on Broadway, Spamalot, it’s good to know that the quirky food product with the storied past has a sense of humor. And you can learn everything there is to know about the product at the SPAM Museum in Austin. Opened in this location in September of 2001, the former K-Mart building is 33,000 square feet, with 16,500 square feet used for the Spam Museum and the other half for official Hormel offices. There are 35 employees in the museum, and about 200 employees in the offices. Prior to existing in this location, the museum was a small 800 square foot space in a retail mall in Austin. The renovated big box store makes a great museum-- and all that space really is needed by the roughly 100,000 people who visit the Spam Museum every year. The guest register shows people from all 50 states in the USA, every province in Canada, and 53 other countries!

Before "SPAM" meant unwanted blasts of marketing email, the luncheon meat was a staple among U.S. soldiers during World War II (which gave rise to the acronym “Special Purpose Army Meat”). Some even say the canned processed meat marvel helped the Allies win World War II! The SPAM Museum features a letter to Hormel from President Dwight D. Eisenhower and includes a replication of SPAMVILLE, a military camp named after the wartime treat.The museum is filled with unique exhibits-- a towering wall of SPAM, comprised of 3,390 cans, greets visitors as they enter the lobby. From there, many life-sized vignettes represent Hormel Foods founder George Hormel and his son, Jay. George Hormel's own desk and an original time clock from Hormel Foods' early days also are on display. The museum features a rendition of Monty Python's classic three-minute SPAM skit, which has fun highlighting the ubiquity of SPAM in Britain since World War II. Visitors can even don a white lab coat and yellow hard hat just like real SPAM factory works do, and try their hand at turning out the product. Compare your time with that of real production staff and you'll learn first hand that canning SPAM is harder than it looks!

SPAM Museum
1937 SPAM Blvd, Austin, MN
800-588-7726
Directions: I-90 exit 178-B (6th St. NE). Head south, make a right at the Hormel Foods Plant. Veer to the right at the split in the road, follow the curve, then go straight. Look for the building with the bronze statue out front of Mr. Hormel herding pigs.

Keywords: Free, Interesting, All year, Museum (History), Everyone, Modern, Easy to reach