Alabama’s Unclaimed Baggage Museum, dedicated to weirdest finds over 50 years, opening soon
Suits of armor.
Vintage musical instruments.
A four-foot-tall goblin puppet from a cult film starring David Bowie.
These are among more than 100 of the strangest items that have found their way into the possession of Unclaimed Baggage, and have been curated into a museum opening later this month in Scottsboro.
The new exhibit answers one of the persistent questions asked at the Alabama attraction – “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found in somebody’s suitcase?”
The opening is set for Friday, April 21 at 11 a.m., with an unveiling, treats and games. The fun continues the following day with food trucks, music, vendors, games, and guided tours of the museum.
Last month, Unclaimed Baggage got an international nod when director Daniel Scheinert wore a black tuxedo from the store to the Academy Awards ceremony, where he and his filmmaking partner Daniel Kwan each won three awards including best picture, director and original screenplay.
The Unclaimed Baggage Center got its start in 1970 when insurance salesman Doyle Owens used a borrowed pickup truck and a $300 loan to buy 100 orphaned suitcases from the Trailway Bus Line in Washington D.C. He brought the baggage back to Scottsboro, where they were all sold within a single day.
Today, Unclaimed Baggage has a 50,000-square-foot facility working with major airlines to purchase abandoned suitcases from all over the country that are left unclaimed after the industry-standard allotment of 90 days. With a goal of maximizing the bag’s potential, its contents are either sold, recycled or donated to charity.
Over the years, workers have found everything from live snakes to peace pipes to shrunken heads in luggage, leading some to wonder if the items weren’t lost on purpose.
But beyond the forgotten cameras, discarded clothing and lost baggage themselves, an eccentric hodge-podge of items have popped out of those Samsonites and Gucci bags over the years. Such as Egyptian burial artifacts dated back to 1500 B.C. (The museum will feature replicas.)
A gas mask sits alongside a three-hundred-year-old violin made by a student of master craftsman Antonio Stradivari. There’s also Hoggle, the animatronic puppet used in the 1986 Jim Henson feature film “Labyrinth,” restored to his weird glory.
You can find out more about Unclaimed Baggage here.