Abita Mystery House / UCM Museum — Attraction in Abita Springs

The Abita Mystery House, also known as the UCM, is a roadside attraction and museum that offers a collection of art and oddities. This spot does remind me a bit of Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens folk art style but with a lot more weird and strange things that take it into the freakshow arena. The Abita Mystery House is located in Abita Springs, LA right in the middle of a lot of other businesses so you can have a really enjoyable time visiting here and walking around to all the other things to see in this area. This space is a combination of a junk collection, folk art museum, game arcade, freak show and horror movie along with a bit of science fiction techno wizardry thrown in as well. This ever-changing collection of items is all brought to us by the creativity of John Preble, who is the owner of The Abita Mystery House. The museum entrance obviously served as a gas station in the past and now serves as the gift shop and as the entry point to the mysteries contained inside this museum. Overall this is a great addition to any visit to Abita Springs and it is even more fun after a visit to the Abita Brewery and the Abita Pub.

My video review of the UCM Museum/Abita Mystery House is...

You will either love this place or hate it, but for just $5 and 1 hour's time, does it matter? Either way, you leave with a story of a place that is part folk art - part obsessive junk collection. The dioramas were awesome recreations of odd times & places, and don't miss the tornado scene! The "world's largest paint-by-numbers painting" and the "world's largest collection of paint-by-numbers paintings" - both in one place! I liked the gator on a bicycle and the bassigator. I did not care for the UFO crashed into the travel trailer.

The place would lose points for groundskeeping, tidiness, and organization, if that is your thing. But it adds to the tackiness which is a theme of this place. My wife hated this museum. I loved it, and want to go back to see what I missed in the 30 minutes we...

The best! Go! If you are anywhere near New Orleans, just make sure you don’t miss this place. It’s just one of those places that you have to see. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see Darrel, the Dogigator? It’s just a few dollars to get in and you take a self-guided tour, so you can stop and take as many pictures as you want...because believe me, you’ll want to take a lot of pictures. The owner was super nice and let us bring our dogs in! All four of them! They are well-behaved, but that was really the best. Then after we were done we told him were heading to Austin and he told us that we HAD to check out a certain restaurant while we were there (which we did and it was delicious!) Basically, this place is one of a kind, in the best way possible and it run by...