Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:175 Jefferson St.
San Francisco, California
Tel:
(415) 771-6188
How bizarre, how bizarre! From shrunken heads to funky art, the Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum is filled with the unusual, and chock-full of oddities sure to shock and excite any visitor.
In addition to cool exhibits, Ripley's Believe it or Not! San Francisco houses hundreds of rare artifacts from all over the world. The chain of museums originally began with Robert Ripley's personal collection of oddities, which was on display at the 1933 Chicago's World Fair. Today, the San Francisco location has crazy exhibits, such as a two-headed calf, an eight-foot-long scale model of a San Francisco cable car made from 270,836 matchsticks, and an eight-foot-tall Stegosaurus made entirely from chrome car bumpers.
If visiting with older kids, check out the shrunken head display, a practice once common to the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador, who kept the heads of enemies as symbols of bravery and shrunk them down by boiling it in herbs. If you can still stomach lunch after the tour, the Museum is located on Fisherman's Wharf, so there's no lack of great dining options about.
To get here, take Bus 32 from the Ferry building, take a cable car from Powell Street to the end of the line, or ride the F-line in from Market Street – but any way you get here, arrive ready, because seeing is believing!
From Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum:
Robert Leroy Ripley, artist, author, and radio broadcaster, was born on Christmas Day, 1893, in Santa Rosa, California. A talented, self-taught artist, Ripley sold his first drawing to Life magazine when he was only 14! Ripley was also a natural athlete who longed for a career in baseball, but his dreams of pitching in the Big Leagues were shattered when he broke his arm while playing his first professional game. After the accident, Ripley returned to his earlier goal of becoming a professional artist. He landed a job as a cartoonist covering sports for the San Francisco Chronicle, but, soon after, he left California and headed for New York City.