page_title: Jones' Fantastic Museum
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Jones' Fantastic Museum / Later history
caption_attribution_description: English: Olaf the Giant in his coffin at Jones' Fantastic Museum in Seattle, USA during the period 1960-1980.
context_page_description: Jones' Fantastic Museum was a family-oriented museum filled with a unique collection of weird and amazing inventions, strange sideshow attractions, old-time dime museum machines and antique exhibits, originally located in Snohomish County, and later in Seattle, Washington, United States, from 1963 to 1980. It was created by avid collector Walt a.k.a. Doc Jones.
context_section_description: Doc Jones committed suicide in the early 1970s.  In 1973, the third floor of the Food Circus was being renovated, so Jones' heirs moved a greatly downsized version of the museum into the basement.  Much smaller than before, it remained there until 1980.  Two years later, the entire collection was donated to Seattle Children's Hospital per Jones' will.  The will stipulated that if the contents of the museum were ever sold, they must be sold as a whole and not broken up.
  The hospital put the collection up for sale in 1984.  After searching one year for a buyer, museum broker Bill Zimmerman found collector Jim Schmit of Oregon.  According to Zimmerman, the sale "was difficult because the items were so diverse and bizarre and because the hospital wanted to sell it in its entirety."
  Schmit, already known to Southern Oregonians for gathering together the world's largest collection of antique outhouses, purchased the entire collection for an undisclosed amount, in partnership with his former neighbor and friend, Baltimore businessman Ralph Bothne.
  As of late 1985, much of the Jones collection formed part of the Lakeview Fantastic Museum, located in the small Southern Oregon town of Lakeview on U.S. Route 395 near the California border.  For some reason—perhaps a dearth of visitors due to the remote location—by 1991 Schmit had moved his museum to a more prominent location in Redmond, Oregon.  Renamed the World Famous Fantastic Museum, it opened in June 1991.
  There is evidence to suggest that the museum's relationship with Redmond city planners was always contentious.  Schmit's putting up a Ferris wheel on the property may have led directly to the closing of the popular and successful museum in 1996.
  In May 1997, Schmit opened up the Museum of the Fantastic in Sisters, Oregon.  Containing only 10% of his collection, it was shut down less than two years after it opened.
caption: Olaf the Giant resting in his coffin.
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