Tat’s Bizarre Travels

Moundsville, WV - When you go to visit the Official Marx Toy Museum get ready for an education. This isn’t a museum that you got to just to look at toys, it’s one where you get to learn about them. You can’t play with them, but considering some of the toys can bring in as much as $14,000 on the collectors market I guess that makes sense. So basically it’s the opposite of every principal a child holds dear. Well, at least it’s a fun education.

When you first come to the museum you’ll be met by the owner, Francis Turner. He has a whole schpeal that lasts a good half hour and includes a little ten minute video that tells you the rise and fall of the Marx empire. I happened to show up at the same time as some other visitors so we got the tour all at the same time, but something tells me he’ll give his talk to as few as one visitors. He’s an expert on the Marx toys and Louis Marx himself. And with thousands of toys that span the 60 years of Marx rule, you can understand how he could get a little attached.

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Moundsville, WV - The Grave Creek Mound is the mound that the town of Moundsville was named after. Although there were several burial mounds in the area, none was comparable in size. At 62′ tall and 240′ across the widest part the mound is rather large. One of the only real perks of visiting the museum is that you can walk the stone stairway that leads to the top of the mound where a 6′ obelisk lives to tell you what direction is North, South, East and West, as well as which teenagers love each other forever! It gives you a nice, although rather unimpressive, view of all of Moundsville. You get an especially nice look at the West Virginia Penitentiary right across the street.

Unfortunately the mound climb is the most exciting part of visiting the Grave Creek Mound, which is an especially big letdown after viewing the lovely dioramas that show the native Adena people building the mound. There are some nice graphics depicting the mound in cross sections and boasting about the burial of the two people who were found in the mound. There are quite a few stories that talk about various excavations and a room where you’re led to believe archeology happens. But all of this is a tease. While walking through the museum I got excited about the possibility of walking through tunnels that lead into the mine to view the tombs of these very important Adena men. Sadly the tunnels are gone and the mound just sits there, tall and uneventful.