Spam Museum

Kewl
This is a treasure jem hidden in Minnesota
Almost impossible not to sing the Monty Python Spam song (yea, they have it there too) but the history — different products and well. .. Spam !

I wish I could write this review without giving the Spam Museum a star rating, as I wasn’t able to visit. The reason: It’s closed at least until summer 2015, according to a guard outside the facility. It’s also worth noting that the address listed here on Unilocal is incorrect; follow it and you’ll end up at a nondescript warehouse area northeast of town. The guard suggested I visit a Spam merchandise store near Walmart in town, and I did so. It, too, was closed.

Pros: Informative and interactive museum capable of educating and entertaining all ages.
Cons: Displays do not always function. Staff are insistent on closing exactly at 5 p.m.

First and foremost I love Spam. I was excited to see the museum. It’s free and informs you of the very interesting history of Hormel. I would not recommend a Vegan to go. But as for us meat eaters… go, go and go.

A surprisingly fun and very well put together museum about the history of Hormel foods and their iconic SPAM product. Admission is free and there’s lots of fun exhibits, movies, and sound bites throughout. Gift shop has all the SPAM and SPAM merchandise you’d ever want or ever need. Well worth visiting.

At the gift shop things were not relatively cheap in my opinion but the gift shop had some pretty decent stuff, regular souvenir type stuff: mugs, cups, SPAM, trinkets, magnets, etc… The woman who worked there was rude, instead of yelling at my kids she should have just told me to handle it. I would have gone back there and given ‘it’ to ‘em. The tour guide was nice and helpful. If you appreciate history, the history of Hormel is actually cool to learn about here with the exhibit they have. They had about three cool games for kids (computers, spam factory, and game show).
Come at least once if you will be in the area. Do not go out of your way to come here if you are not already within a 30 – 45 min drive. It would not be worth it at that point.

Very cool spot every flavor of spam… Go when it’s not busy! Cute interactive things to do. And I love that it is free admission… A lot of things are not free these days. If you’re in the area or passing by make sure to stop by and check it out… But some spam!

On a mini-​roadtrip with my guy through southeast Minnesota, and it was his idea to stop by Austin and visit the Spam Museum. I’ll admit, I was skeptical… I mean, really? The SPAM Museum? Yoooooooookay, boyfriend. By the way, it’s free. Well… okay. I suppose I can look at Spam for free.
However, I must retract all of my misgivings, as the museum was really great, and I had a fun time! There are lots of cool interactive exhibits, the space is very clean, and although the tour is self-​guided, there are helpful employees (volunteers, perhaps) to offer little tidbits about each exhibit.
Unfortunately, as other reviewers have noted, there are no samples. I’ve had Spam in some dishes, but it’s the regular Spam, and it would’ve been really neat to try some of the other flavors! In fact, as we were getting the intro spiel, the lady noted that a new flavor had just been released that morning — teriyaki! I would’ve loved to get a forkful of that on the tour! We did pick a can up in the museum store though.
Speaking of the store, definitely stop in – they have Spam everything! I bought some postcards, a foam pig named Spammy, and a Spam bike water bottle. Heh.
Definitely recommended if you are in the area! For FREE DOLLARS, you could do a lot worse. ;)

The Hormel Company puts its best foot forward here at the SPAM Museum. The history of SPAM and the marketing of the products throughout the years are well presented. Great museum store!

Band road trip. Four people in the band. Half the band were gigantic SPAM fans.
It was on the way home. Obviously, we had to make a stop. (For the two of us who aren’t big SPAM fans — hey, they have one of the cleanest bathrooms ever! :D)
It’s cute, in a kitschy way. If you’re into nostalgic advertising, it’s totally interesting. We watched a brief informational film about the history of SPAM, then looked at the exhibits, then ended in the gift shop.
What would have been AWESOME would have been if this place had a little SPAM Café that served some of the Hawaiian SPAM specialties that the informational film tells you about. I have Hawaiian friends, so I’m familiar with the importance of SPAM in that cuisine, but dude — why tell us about it and let us buy every kind of SPAM in existence, but then not cash in on this brilliant marketing opportunity?
I mean, I’m not a SPAM fan — but I’d have tried it. As it was, I left without spending any money — but infinitely happier about not having a full bladder. Shrug.

Silly. Just silly.
Disclaimer-I’m a vegetarian, so I’m already biased.
My sister and i went a few months back on a road trip after seeing signs along the highway and decided it was a well deserved and quirky stop to make.
When you try to make a disneyland like attraction about an iconic processed food, you get the Spam Museum.
We sat through a video of people who loved Spam and the opening of it’s door to the museum and we were the only ones. I was dying.
You walk around and read how it started and why it was created and it all makes sense. I can’t imagine school bus loads of kids being carted here for a field trip.
There’s a gift shop with everything Spam.
I don’t know, if you have some time to kill and you love quirky, DO IT!

Spamalot! Or maybe the Guggenham?
At the suggestion of one of Gayle’s friends, we stopped at the Spam Museum on our way home to Ames from the Twin Cities. With features such as the Wall of Spam, a «Spam, The Love Story» movie, hints of the Spamettes singing group, free spam, and a cool gift shop, how could we refuse? The Spam Museum is located in Austin, MN which is the global HQ of Hormel. This place is a great slice of Americana and is not to be missed if you’re anywhere in the area.
Maybe on a future trip, we’ll take in the Vinegar Museum in Roslyn, South Dakota, or the Mustard Museum in Southern Wisconsin. There’s so much kitchy food presentations and so little time!

Definitely take longer than 10 minutes. Lots of history. We left with a greater appreciation & respect for the history of SPAM. It is a free museum & plenty of parking. The folks working close to closing time were very friendly.
Definitely stop!

As you drive into Austin, you’ll pass a few Hormel buildings, including a packaging plant. There’s not even a need to roll down your windows to smell Eau de Spam, while driving through this small town to get to the Spam museum.
This is a free admissions museum. It was quite a surprise to find that the exhibits here are well done. The exhibits detail the history of Hormel and specifically, their Spam product. There’s a good mix of hands on, interactive exhibits such as the race to pack spam, opening the drawers to see the other spam products/​labels, lifting a pallet of spam, etc. The staff here is extremely friendly.
We were even able to sample 2 types of Spam during our visit there. The black pepper Spam and the turkey Spam. It was cubed, warmed up Spam on pretzel sticks.
The gift shop here sells various Spam paraphernalia and specialty spam flavors (ie: Hot & Spicy, Garlic, Black Pepper, Jalapeño, Bacon, Turkey, Smoky, etc) that you may not see in your regular grocery store. However, you can buy these online too.
The only possible downside here is that there isn’t a small café attached to the museum serving up the various Spam recipes they keep mentioning in the various exhibits.

A very clever and interactive museum along our path. My sister was kind of freaking out, being a vegetarian, but I made her do it anyway.
The staff was so, so nice and welcoming. Like they are just so happy that you stopped here. It’s cool and air conditioned inside. The facility and bathroom are very clean. We sat through a short little movie and walked quickly through the museum which led us to the gift shop.
I brought some specialty spam items home to friends. A fun stop on an otherwise uneventful drive.

This is just about the only remarkable thing while driving across southern Minnesota. I made a beeline towards this place once I saw the sign just to break up the monotony.
It’s a cute museum. You can see the entire place in about 10 minutes. They have a wall of Spam, a bunch of neat games and WWII history stuff; in fact, I saw a couple WWII veterans in the museum. It’s an alright place to stop if the endless fields of Minnesota are lulling you to sleep at your wheel.

When I heard there was a Spam Muesum, I just had to come, even if it took 100 miles to get there from Minnesota. Boy did it stink outside! I think the stench is from a packaging plant across the street. Entrance is on Spam Avenue (hehe, yes, quite ammused). Anywho, the free entrance did not off set the gas cost it took to get there, but hey, 4 starts, riiight?
Admission is free, always a good thing. Despite the smell outside, it was actually extremely clean inside. The guide that greeted us was very friendly. She was only there for the entrance, the rest was self walk through. The museum was very cartoon like, and mostly described a history of spam. There was this cool thing where we could time ourselves in the spam assembly line. I really messed up when putting the spam label on, haha.
The gift shop was very expensive. It was $ 3 for one specialty can of spam, such as bacon flavored. In Hawaii, a can of spam costs $ 1.79 on sale. There were a lot of cool stuff too, like bandaids, spam spread, mini spam mugs, spam shaped stress ball…

Spam i am. I love Spam! Even when people give me the weird looks and ask me if I know what makes Spam.
Of course I do because I had a free weekend to trek down to Austin and visit the Musuem! Go here if you really love Spam like myself and collect up some out of the ordinary flavors like tobasco, cheddar, garlic etc Theres plenty to choose from and you theres a lot of hands on stuff for kids too.
Walking through the whole museum and stopping for the short movie too it took about 1 hour. From the Twin Cities it was a drive but if you have a great crew coming with it doesn’t seem too long. The only downside was there wasn’t any samples. The staff was super friendly though. Stop by if you are driving past Austin or have a free weekend.

The beginning video — pretty informative
The outside — impressive
The displays — very interesting
In all this place has some pretty good information about an interesting company. The store also carries a couple of versions of spam that you can’t get anywhere else. Lots of other interesting SPAM items to buy at the store.
It is free, so keep that in mind. No free samples or tours. I am not a big fan of «roadside» or «road trip» stops but this place is somewhere you should certainly stop if you are in the area.

Drove from Minneapolis 100 Miles to visit this Museum! The people working here were really nice. entrance is free, and our experience with the entire staff was great!
Overall…I can now say that I went to the SPAM Museum and that’s pretty great in itself. But… it just wasn’t as fantastic as I had hoped it would be. So… Why…an A-​ok?
No SPAM samples!!! What? No fantastical SPAM restaurant??? No Spam Tray full of SPAM goodness with SPAM that I can actually taste that isn’t available everywhere else??? Big Time Bummer…
Cool interactive displays though! There is a SPAM puppet show, Game Show, Conveyer Belt, and the Gift Shop is full of SPAM everything… even SPAM singles!!!
We had a great time though… company really makes the difference so come with your fun friends and have a SPAMTASTICALLY great time!!! Just don’t come hungry! We went to the restaurant across the way that actually serves some SPAM dishes but it just wan’t creative and nowhere near what I would expect for a SPAM Museum trip. Mall of America Sponge Bob ride and Bar Bike might have been a better time spent but we made the most of it for sure and have really great pics!!!