Wheels O' Time Museum — Attraction in Illinois

Review Date: June 1st, 2013

You’ll have a wheely good time here.

There really is a museum for everything and anything. This one happens to be dedicated to all things on wheels. Or things that have wheels. Or wheel-shaped things. Okay, I don’t think it’s the last one but I do think this place is dedicated to items sitting on top of wheels.

I’m not really sure how I found out about this place. It may have been from someone at work that brought it up during one of our many talks about traveling. Doing what I do best, I contacted someone to go with me and that person just happened to be my dad. We hopped in my car and made the semi-short drive to check the place out.

When we approached the museum, the first thing we noticed was the train situated next to the building. You knew from looking at it that you were in for a treat. We made our way in and got to checking out the museum.

The first thing we saw were antique cars. I recognized a few but a lot of them were unique to their time period. I’m not super attached to antique cars but I always think they are cool to look at in museums and such. They had maybe 15 or so at the time of my visit.

We moved on to the other part of the museum and it had an eclectic collection of odds and ends. There was a firetruck that we got to take photos with. There was a Rube Goldberg-esque display as seen below. They had a mini train model set up in a glass case. Lastly, I remember there being a giant pendulum-style clock near the firetruck.

It’s rather hard to write this post as the place seemed to be dedicated to things on wheels but also other random odds and ends. It’s best to check out their website below or visit the museum to see what I mean. It’s a neat place to spend and afternoon if you...

Nearly everything inside the museum not only works, but they encourage you to touch and experience. Kudos to the team of people that undoubtedly keep up on repairs and maintenance of all the treasures within so that future guests can enjoy and experience. A friend and I went together and we had so much fun, I will return and recommend!!

The one notable thing I was disappointed to see was no fire sprinkler systems anywhere, and I only recall seeing one fire extinguisher in a conspicuous location. It worries me because obviously there is a ton of old and cool stuff, with many, many, many little wires of power supplied to it all so that it functions. I kept thinking that a single spark could ignite the whole place and this gem would be gone from Peoria.

Bonus feature - the steel house was such a fun and interesting exhibit, that after our visit we went in search of other existing steel houses in Peoria Heights and were ecstatic when we...

We've driven by plenty of times and finally went! So glad we did - its an awesome local museum for kids and adults. I love that there are so many working models and fun machines for kids to try. Lots of buttons to push and unlike some other museums, they all actually work! :) My kids (8, 6 and 4) were intrigued by the typewriters in the library, the barbershop quartet, the old fire trucks and the old toy and doll display that plays "It's a Small World." Definitely a lot to see and I appreciated all of the signs and plaques. The jukeboxes and other antique machines that take pennies, nickels and dimes are s fun touch too. There were a few exhibits where more labels would have been nice but overall, a fun, interactive, reasonably priced museum. The staff were so friendly and...