The Drive-Thru Museum

In the tiny town of Seale, Alabama, there is a roadside attraction that doesn’t require getting out of your car. It is a drive-thru, but not the usual kind: It’s not for burgers and fries, there is no ATM, and you can’t drop off your dry cleaning. It’s billed as the world’s first drive-thru art and antiques gallery.

Created by artist and collector Butch Anthony in 2014, the Drive-Thru is an offshoot of his Museum of Wonder, and was built to help control the crowds who show up at the museum. In an unincorporated town of just a few hundred people, having even one such destination would be a gem, but having two near each other is an exceptional wealth of local folk art, unusual collections, antiques, and curios.

The Drive-Thru Museum is made from stacked shipping containers, with windows cut into the sides to reveal a myriad of items collected or created by Anthony. It’s a short drive to get through the whole collection, but each piece will make you hit the brakes. There’s the two-headed ducklings, a large gallstone attached to poems (art he calls “intertwangleism”), drawings of skeletons and bones superimposed on old photographic portraits, and found-object art mixed with taxidermy animals. Take as much time as you need.