A Non-Guilty Pleasure: The Toy Museum on Beaver Island, Michigan

How often do you get up to Beaver Island? Never? Well, here’s a little more incentive to get you there: it’s the Toy Museum near Whiskey Point.

Mary Scholl once had a toy store in Chicago but packed up and moved to 'the Beaver.' Once there, she designed the museum and her own home. The museum is impressive on the outside, but even more so on the inside. It is packed with toys of all sizes and generations: old cars, trucks, and other vehicles hang from the ceiling and cling to the walls. Robots, Disneyana, trolls, games...you name the genre of toy, and it’s probably there.

Also on display are old postcards, arts & crafts, trading cards, jewelry, candles, paintings...it’s a place filled with things to delight kids, as well as the kid in every adult.

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Out back, a grove of cherry trees shelter her sculptures which include a Buddha, dinosaurs, bugs, busts, kids, and animals.

With the place packed with customers on so many days, its amazing that more things don’t get picked up by shoplifters. Mary is also an accomplished artist, with many of her paintings available to consumers.

Now if you pay a visit, don’t go inside thinking this is strictly a museum, as many of these toys are for sale. There have been some whiners complaining about that fact. But why complain? Even if some of the toys are for sale, it’s still a cool experience to view these awesome collectables, right? So quit whining.

Check out the gallery below for images inside the toy museum...

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