Isle of Wight County Museum — Attraction in Smithfield

I came for the ham and stayed for the plantations, peanuts and Pocahontas.

Really neat little museum going into the history of the area and the general way of life in historical small-town America. I learned a lot. The museum focuses on the history of the area from European settlement to today. I think they recognized the lack of pre-colonization native history, so they've added a section that provides more information about the indigenous tribes. There is, however, disturbingly little about the history of people of color in the area... except for a mention in the history documentary about the importation of slaves and that post-Civil War sharecropping "continued into the 20th century."

But the real star of the show is, of course, The Ham. To be fair, there are two hams of note... but while the world's largest ham is neat, we all know you're here for the world's oldest ham. It did not disappoint. I ended up watching myself on the Ham Cam on my phone while visiting in person. It was glorious. Whoever came up with the idea of the ham cam - which you can watch, 24/7, on the museum's website - is a...

Nice little museum which is huge on the inside. Friendly staff, lots of artifacts, about local history from the Native Americans to the Colonial period, and beyond. A must to visit at least once. Update : Just revisited the museum a few days ago. Still the same AND more. They added an exhibit on the Cold War and more displays about the Civil War. The staff is as friendly as ever and it isn't busy. Also, just costs two dollars a head. That's cheap. Even for a local museum. And you get to see the oldest peanut. What more...

The museum had a nice array of exhibits, but the woman attending the admissions desk wasn’t very hospitable. After coming from another attraction that didn’t include public bathrooms, a member of my party requested the use of a bathroom.

The woman suggested we use some bathroom at an ice cream shop, and after telling her that we intended on visiting the museum, she still thought we were just visiting to use the bathroom. She reluctantly pointed him to the bathroom and we enjoyed our...