3/20/10: Motts Military Museum

Where: 5075 South Hamilton Road, Groveport, OH‎
Cost: Adults: $5.00; Students $3.00; Seniors $4.00
Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday 9am-5pm; Sunday 1-5 pm

*TIM'S DISCLAIMER* I don't have any really good pictures from the museum. So, I can't have a photoriffic post like Tonee. The only shots we have were through a chain link fence because the museum prohibits photography and I didn't feel like posting those. So for pictures from the exhibits, I'd like to direct you to this link Motts Military Museum Home Page . So, without further ado, my post.

I've known about Motts since sometime around 2005. However, in all that time, I've never gotten around to visiting the museum and I have no good reason for it. Kind of like the Fire Museum.

Since it is finally starting to warm up in Central Ohio, it was the perfect day to be out in their, well for lack of a better term, motor pool. In this outside area they have tanks, aircraft, howitzers, a Higgins Boat, and a replica of Eddie Rickenbacker's house.

Inside the main building, there were artifacts packed all over. It was impossible to spend less than 15 minutes looking at a single case. The first main part of the museum features artifacts from the 1700s to Lincoln's assassination. This is where most of the Civil War medical equipment is displayed. It's amazing to see how far we've come in 150 years.

Next you come across items from the 1900s to the end of The Great War. There are examples of WWI uniforms and field equipment. What was really amazing to see were the French Army uniforms. Everyone can recognize a doughboy, but you can't really picture uniforms from our allies with the possible exception of Great Britain.

Once you turn the corner, you are greeted with a German soldier in a guard tower and suddenly, you are in World War 2. In this area you see Nazi printed copies of Mien Kampf, door hinges from the Eagle's Nest, and even one of McArthur's trademark pipes. Also from the Pacific Theater, there are parts of the teak deck from the USS Missouri. Tucked away in a corner is a uniform belonging to Paul Tibbets with a model of the Enola Gay. The Tuskegee Airmen have a wall dedicated to their history and what happened to the members of the unit after the war.

There isn't too much going into Korea, the Cold War, or Vietnam. However, there is a new wing opening up soon that will give them more space to display items from these conflicts and go into the detail the other eras have.

To wrap up Tim's way-too-detailed-post-with-way-too-many-links, Motts Military Museum is a well hidden secret of Central Ohio. It too, is one of those places that you know of but have no reason as to why you haven't gone. Well worth the admission, you can get lost here for a day. Everywhere you turn in the museum there is an interesting artifact packed into some small space.