The city of Blackfoot, in Bingham County, Idaho, claims the title, Potato Capital of the World.
Indeed, in an average year Bingham County’s 1177 farms produce 57,000+ acres of potatoes. Now that’s a lot of baked potatoes!
What’s in the Idaho Potato Museum?
You can’t miss the Potato Museum, as you’re greeted by a giant sculpted potato topped with fake sour cream and butter.
Inside, the Potato Museum takes you back through the potato’s history, right to its origin in the Andes Mountains of South America where potatoes were cultivated since about 200 BC.
Indeed, the museum has various artifacts representing the Andean “Potato God.”
However, the first potatoes in North America likely came to Virginia in the 1620s after they were taken to Europe from Peru by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589.
According to the museum, nearly all of the potatoes grown in Idaho are Russet Burbank variety and likely originated from a single seed ball discovered by Luther Burbank growing in his New England garden in 1872.
Tools in the Potato Museum
While there are lots of professionally prepared information panels, the Idaho Potato Museum is definitely not a read-it museum. Indeed, there are all kinds of tools and pieces of equipment that have been used over the decades to plant and harvest potatoes.
For example, the original potato scoop for moving potatoes from cold storage to market was more or less a pitchfork married to a shovel.
In 1958, though, Carl and Leo Hobbs invented a potato scooper they called the Spudnik (named after, you guessed it, the Russian Sputnik space mission) that was much more modern.
Fast Facts From the Potato Museum
- Early peoples in Peru used a freeze and squeeze process to dehydrate potatoes similar to what we use today
- The average American eats approximately 110 pounds of potatoes every year
- Bill Brocklesby’s collection of 177 potato peelers (from as far back as the 1940s) were donated to the museum
- Potatoes are often a second crop, following a grain harvest
And of course, who can forget Mr. Potato Head, the lovable toy from the 1950s. Born in 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television!
Linda’s Pick of the Exhibits
My favorite exhibits were the machines used to plant and harvest potatoes. While I didn’t do a lot of garden work as a kid, I do remember planting potatoes as being the thing I liked the least. And as an adult, that’s even more true as it seems to me to be back-breaking work!
Of course, coming from a farm background also increases my interest in the machines we’ve used over the centuries to feed the world.
The Inca foot plow was one of the earliest tools used. And it was just a few pieces of wood strapped together with leather bindings. The image below shows some of the later equipment.
Linda’s Road Trip Tips
We stopped at the Idaho Potato Museum on a trip through the state on I-15.
Lunch was in Cedric’s Restaurant in Idaho Falls after we visited the Museum of Idaho there.
I can highly recommend their fried cheese curds and a scone — what could be tastier?
From Blackfoot, ID, we continued on I-15 to Pocatello, ID, and the Museum of Clean, which is another must-see stop on this route! We stayed the night in Brigham, Utah, at the Crystal Inn Hotel & Suites Brigham City, which was very comfortable. From there, it was only 25 mi (40 km) to the amazing Hill Aerospace Museum in Ogden, Utah, on I-15.
Who Should Visit the Idaho Potato Museum?
The Idaho Potato Museum is a should see museum for anyone traveling I-15 through the state of Idaho — while you may think of a museum about potatoes as just another novelty, it’s far from it. It’s a must see stop for anyone interested in agriculture and growing their own produce.
EASY READERS. Fairy tale and fable ebook retellings set in the old west pioneer days – BUY FOR $2.99 EACH on Amazon Kindle
No matter your age, you’ll find the potato history and the evolution of the equipment used to farm it interesting.
There’s lots to keep the youngsters interested, which is always a plus.
This isn’t a large museum, so takes only an hour or so to visit.
How To Visit the Idaho Potato Museum
The Idaho Potato Museum is right off interstate I-15, in the town of Blackfoot, ID, at 130 NW Main Street. The museum is open year round, as is their Potato Station Cafe (while we didn’t try the baked potatoes, they looked amazing!)
Check the hours and admission rates at the Idaho Potato Museum website.
Learn more about happenings at the Idaho Potato Museum on their Facebook page.
Plan your visit now with Google Maps. If you enjoyed this article, please pin it to share later.
Discover More Science Museums
- Tour The Biosphere: Montreal’s Environment Museum
Discover the past, present, and future of sustainable living at The Biosphere museum in Montreal, Canada. This geodesic structure was built for the 1967 World’s Fair. - Discover the Amazing Canada Science and Technology Museum
Ottawa’s Canada Science and Technology Museum is a highly interactive, engaging museum featuring hundreds of artifacts from Canada’s science and technology heritage. - Fort Worth Museum of Science & History: Museum School™
From the 80-seat planetarium to the state dinosaur, the museum is an amazing attraction. Families will love visiting the Fort Worth Science and History Museum with its fun, hands-on educational exhibits. - Lafayette Science Museum: From Dinosaurs to the Space Age in Louisiana
From a rare Saurophagan dinosaur to nanotechnology to a state-of-the-art planetarium, the Lafayette Science Museum is a great destination. There’s lots to see in this 10,000 sq foot science museum in Louisiana. - McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum: Chicago, Illinois
The McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum in is Chicago, Illinois. This small museum lets visitors see the technology behind Chicago’s movable bridges. - Moody Gardens: Resort & Fun Attractions with Pyramids in Galveston, Texas
Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, is AZA accredited for its aquarium and rainforest zoo. It’s also home to a museum of regularly rotating exhibits, featuring topics such as Body Worlds RX: Prescriptions for Healthy Living. - Museum Of Illusions Toronto: Mind-Bending Exhibits
The Toronto Museum of Illusions has 80+ interactive displays. Visit this Canadian attraction to learn fun science facts. - Field Museum: Natural History Museum in Chicago, Illinois
The Field Museum in Chicago is considered one of the world’s best dinosaur museums. But that’s not all – see nearly 40 million artifacts and learn fascinating facts about earth’s natural history! - Audubon Insectarium: Natural Science Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana
There’s more to bugs than you might imagine! Discover all kinds of fascinting things about insects at New Orleans’ Audubon Insectarium Science Museum. - Glendive Dinosaur & Fossil Museum: 25+ Dinosaur Skeletons in Glendive, Montana
The Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum in Montana is narrated from the Young Earth Creationism perspective. It features many dinosaur fossils and a biblical history room.
Reference(s)
Potatoes USA. (n.d.). Potato history and origin. https://potatogoodness.com/potato-fun-facts-history/
guide2museums.com 