Buffalo Bill Museum — Attraction in Le Claire Township

It's amazing how many different themes the exhibits portray. Of course there are many artifacts, photos, and displays about native son Buffalo Bill Cody's life, including firearms used during that period. Because his life included such things as the Civil war, Army Scout during the westward expansion of the US, buffalo hunter, and his Wild West show, all of these things are covered.

But LeClaire, Iowa and nearby areas were originally home to Native Americans. Their history and lives are also covered. These include the United State' 1832 war with Chief Black Hawk of the Sac Indian tribe, which included battles in the area.

LeClaire was also home to generations of Mississippi River boat pilots and boat builders during the era of the steam boat. Many exhibits deal with this history, and the highlight is the display of the actual steam-powered Lone Star riverboat, which was built in 1890 and worked in the area until the 1960s.

The boat is enclosed within the building to preserve it and allow viewing it year round. You can tour the boat and see mechanical components such as boilers, engines, pumps, etc, as well as the pilot house and crew's quarters.

Other displays include pioneer and rural farm life, early industrial and commercial history of the area, weapons and uniforms of wars (including the Civil War, WWI, WWII), women's clothing from the early 1900s, and aircraft 'black box' flight recorders and automobile safety features invented by native son and engineer James Ryan Jr.

The museum also has an archive section for research into many of the topics on display.

It really is unusual to find such a fine museum in a small town, and thousands of people visit...

We heard from family that this was a neat stop. My kids don't generally do well with museums, but figured it was inexpensive and worth a shot.

There was no wait at all. We walked in and the front desk greeted us gleefully. We paid and she started telling us how to navigate. Then, she breaks out scavenger hunt sheets for the kids!! They've never been more excited to explore a museum in their life. There was plenty of artifacts from history about not only Buffalo Bill, but other historical figures & events of the town.

I love aviation and the father of the 'Black Box was from the area, so they have a few of his early pieces on display!

We thought this was going to be a quick 20 minute stop and we walked around for over an hour, and we could have easily spent another half hour or more watching the educational videos about the displays.

Overall, it's very affordable and worth the time. I definitely...

A great little museum of American History including Regional, Native American and Western/Buffalo Bill History. I thought I'd spend maybe a half hour here, but ended up almost two hours looking around this amazing collection of how people managed to live in times gone by. I highly recommend this museum for anyone even mildly interested in American History. A video area featuring historic info on Buffalo Bill, a lot of stuff on Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill HIckock and Annie Oakley. And who knew that Iron Eyes Cody (the crying Indian from TV comercials and movies) was actually an Italian Immigrant who adopted the Native way of life? They have an interactive area for children to wear period clothing and handle items, there is also an area with The Lone Star steamer. I'd take a class of children here for a real fun education in history. Low admission price and...