SPAM Museum, Austin, MN – 09 JUL 2012

I couldn't drive back to Illinois with out stopping at the SPAM Museum...dedicated to that meat product in a can that people either love or hate. 

No other American food product has had such a profound influence on world pop culture. It is the brunt of jokes, urban legends, folklore, Monty Python and unwanted emails. 

TW helps a Farmer with his Pigs

Walking through the front door, I turned around to find a wall of SPAM made from 3,500 cans.

SPAM World Dishes

There is a cyber diner where you can access official SPAM websites; a 42 seat theatre showing a film of old SPAM commercials and sponsored events; then a provisions market:

Hormel Provisions Market 1892-1922

George Hormel with Son, Jay

Some of the other successful Hormel brands...I was surprised to see my favorite wok oil among them:

Tinky Winky wanted to join the Hormel Girls but they disbanded in 1953. Take this link to see a Tribute to them with lots of old photos: Tribute to Hormel Girls

SPAM was introduced in 1937 but spread across the world during WWII as 15 million cans were sent to troops every week.

Hawaii has the highest per capita consumption of SPAM in the United States at 7 million cans a year.

South Koreans consider SPAM to be an upscale food.

On March 22, 1994, Hormel Foods Corporation Celebrated the production of its' five billionths can of SPAM.

Above the production display...below an interactive assembly line where you can time how long it takes you to put together a can of SPAM.

Overhead, there is a conveyor belt containing over 800 cans of SPAM that takes 17 minutes to travel around part of the museum.

40's              /                  50's

Hormel hired George Burns and Gracie Allen to advertise SPAM on their radio show in the 1940s.

60's               /                 70's

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as a young 18 year-old working in her family's grocery store, remembers SPAM as a "wartime delicacy."

80's              /                90's

Everywhere you turned there were SPAM recipes ranging from Far East Meatballs and Musubi to Fajitas and Meatloaf.

Link to Spam Recipes 

                       Today           /TW Visits Hologram Soldier

GIs called SPAM “ham that failed the physical.” It wasn't that they didn't like it...they just didn't like having it for every meal.

Nikita Khrushchev once said, “Without SPAM, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army.”

Today's SPAM Varieties

Not shown is the SPAM Exam room, where teams can compete in a mock game show, complete with a hologram host, to see who knows the most about SPAM. Really tests your retention of all the facts contain in the museum exhibits.

All Things SPAM

My favorite display was the recreation of the Green Midget Cafe with the famous Monty Phython skit playing on the television.

This was the final sketch of the 25th show of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the ending credits continue the joke by adding SPAM to everyone’s name. Link to Monty Python SPAM

As I was leaving town I spotted this Greek Revival house, former home of George A. Hormel, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

A few miles down the road and I felt like I was back in California.