This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.
Every time you think you’ve done it all, eaten it all, and seen it all, Kansas City has this wonderful way of reminding you: You’re not even close. From off-the-beaten-path restaurants to long-running festivals to niche museums you never knew existed, the city is full of surprises and hidden gems.
We’ve featured fun and unusual museums in past Adventure! editions, but there is so much more to discover around the region. Many know of the soon-closing Arabia Steamboat Museum, the Puppetry Arts Institute, or the Glore Psychiatric Museum, but there are so many more museums exploring unique subject matters and the passions of the people who put it all together.
Here are some more quirky, hidden or under-visited museums to explore around Kansas City.
The Media Tech Museum
Located in the Crossroads, the brand-new Media Tech Museum just opened in June 2026. Curated over decades by Jon Trozzolo, the museum tracks the history of media in all its forms over the last 150 years.
With nearly a thousand items in its collection, you’ll explore everything analog and digital, spanning telegraphs and phonographs to cameras. When entering the museum, you are met with a huge collection of LaserDisc movies no longer playable in most homes.
One of the more interesting items is the RCA TK-11 television camera, the first TV camera used in the 1950s that brought newscasters like Kansas City native Walter Cronkite into the homes of millions of people.
For our radio listeners, you can also step inside one of the first radio booths from the ‘40s. Music lovers will enjoy the evolution of the juke box, from old 45 records to CDs, and other beloved tech like their display of 8-track players and iPods.
- Where: 1600 Baltimore Ave., Suite 102, Kansas City, Missouri
- Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturdays 12-6 p.m.
- Tickets: $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and children
Museum of BBQ
For a town that is world-renowned for its barbecue, it’s surprising that it took us this long to have a proper museum. Opened in 2025, the Museum of BBQ in Crown Center is a choice cut of a museum that is both informative and interactive.
Just as surprisingly, it’s the first museum dedicated to barbecue in the world.
The adventure begins as you walk through a large stainless-steel door, which resembles a smoker, and encounter an old-fashioned meat counter and a wall puzzle that shows where the different cuts of pig come from.
One of the museum's points of interest is a breakdown of regional sauces and rubs across the country. For example, Kansas City is known for a molasses and tomato-based sauce, while Kentucky sauce is a base of Worcestershire, lemon, and vinegar
Finally, if you have kids (or you’re a big kid yourself), enjoy the baked bean ball pit. At the end of the museum, you’re given a sticker that captures the smell of your favorite barbecue.
After you’re done, you will be in the mood for some ‘cue, and the gift shop has a collection of merch, rubs, and spices. Or head out to Burnt End BBQ in Crown Center, the nearby Gates on Main Street, Jack Stack at the Freight House, or Arthur Bryant’s over in 18th & Vine.
- Where: 2450 Grand Blvd., Suite 231, Kansas City, Missouri
- Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
- Tickets: $10
The Money Museum
If you’ve ever wanted to see what a 50-foot wall of cash looks like, the Money Museum is where you need to go. Located at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (across the street from the National WWI Museum and Memorial), the Money Museum has a ton to discover.
First up is the Harry S. Truman Coin Collection on the south wall. It contains 450 coins that were donated to the Truman Library by John Snyder in 1962. The former president leased an office on the 11th floor of the Federal Reserve until his library was completed.
Visitors can then attempt to lift an actual bar of gold that’s surprisingly heavy (it’s secure behind glass, so don’t get any funny ideas). The bar was cast in 1959, and is the only one housed at the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve has 12 banks split into districts, with a total of 24 branches, and the Money Museum will explain how it functions within the country’s economy. Other exhibits will have you spotting a counterfeit bill, and visualizing $1 million when the bills are stacked end-to-end.
One of the absolute highlights, though, are the money robots: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. These are automated forklifts that carry crates of currency from storage to the sorting rooms. One of the functions of the Federal Reserve is to remove old and worn-out currency from circulation. Once the robots deliver the crates to the room, a machine scans the money, pulls out old bills, and sends them up to a shredder. For a souvenir, you get to bring home a bag of shredded cash. Be aware, though, that there are no pictures allowed of the sorting room or anything else in that section of the museum.
Best of all, the museum is free, but you must have a valid ID and go through security to enter.
- Where: 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, Missouri
- Hours: Monday-Tuesday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Wednesday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
- Tickets: Free admission!
National Frontier Trails Museum
The Kansas City area was at the heart of America’s westward expansion and sense of Manifest Destiny, with the Santa Fe Trail, the California Trail, and the Oregon Trail all running through the area.
If you want to see if you have the skills to take those trails, then you need to visit the National Frontier Trails Museum.
Located in Independence, Missouri, where those three famous trails converge, the National Frontier Trails Museum transports you back to the 1800s. You’ll learn about Native Americans in the area, the fur trade that drove the economy, and, of course, the trails. In fact, you can still see some wheel ruts right outside the museum.
Of special interest is the museum’s exhibit on Lewis and Clark, who came through the area in 1804 on their iconic Corps of Discovery expedition. William Clark actually picked the bluffs of Quality Hill (later carved out to create modern-day Kansas City) for a potential fort site.
One of the more interactive exhibits is the wagon loading game. Rice, beans, flour, hardtack — what can you pack in your wagon, and how far would you make it? There is a weight limit, so make the best choice that you can!
- Where: 416 W Maple Ave., Independence, Missouri
- Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
- Tickets: Free, donations encouraged
Pony Express Museum
About an hour’s drive north of Kansas City, St. Joseph, Missouri, is something of a museum wonderland. Check out our Adventure! Guide of the city to find out about the city, including the Jesse James House and the Patee House Museum, which was the headquarters of the Pony Express and is chock full of historic artifacts.
But if you want to go deeper on that topic, then you need to visit the Pony Express Museum. The Pony Express was started by local legend Alexander Majors in 1860, as a way to speedily deliver mail on the western frontier to California.
In just over a year of life, the Pony Express rocketed into our national mythology with tales of long rides, daring gunfights, and unforgettable heroes like Buffalo Bill Hickok.
At the museum, visit the stables to see where the horses were kept, jump on a saddle to test if you could sit tight for 12-hour journeys, and read some of the historic letters that traveled this path.
- Where: 914 Penn St., St. Joseph, Missouri
- Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
- Tickets: $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, $5 for students, $3 for kids ages 4-6, free for children 3 and under
Atlas 9
Atlas 9 is a sci-fi fever dream come to life. Opened in 2025, it’s less of a museum and more of an interactive storytelling experience.
The story is that Atlas 9, a movie theater in the 1990s, invented a new holographic projection technology that goes bad, causing the film on screen to come to life. You join a specialized governmental agency trying to discover what went wrong as you explore some of the wildest scene scapes ever invented.
The facility brought in set designers to bring the fantastic sequences to life, greeting visitors with a vintage-feeling (but fully functional) pizza parlor and mall scene with custom video games. From there, you can either follow the clues and solve puzzles, or just be amazed at the art, such as a pirate ship, licorice room, and interactive theater with controls in the seats.
If you work the puzzle just right in the infinity room, you’ll unlock a portal to a secret bar, where a one-way mirror allows you to watch the world (and people) around you. It’s not exactly easy to find, so good luck!
Finally, live actors and performers scatter throughout the museum, such a jazz stage with bands and musicians. Check out their event page because there is so much more fun to be had, including $10 screenings of classic movies like “Jurassic Park, “Goonies,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
- Where: 1100 N. 98th St., Kansas City, Kansas
- When: Tuesday-Thursday, 2 p.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 12-11 p.m., Sundays 12-8 p.m.
- Tickets: $40 per person, or a season’s pass for $150. Tuesdays are half price.
