Mount Angel, OR

Mount Angel Abbey is a monastery for Benedictine monks. It's been around since 1882 -- not very long compared to the medieval Roman Catholic sites of Europe, but long enough for the monks, who have time on their hands, to collect a lot of worldly items.

The fruits that they've gathered are displayed in the Abbey's free museum, whose entrance sign diffidently describes it as a "rather eccentric collection of artifacts." Everyone is welcome, and the monks -- perhaps courting a small sin of pride -- encourage visitors to bring their cameras.

Much more is on exhibit than the expected Catholic iconography and old liturgical vestments. One noted exhibit was no longer on display - a football-size pig hairball. The smaller hairballs that remain seemed less nightmarish. Next to the hairballs, also protected behind glass, is a taxidermied spotted calf with four extra legs growing down from its stomach. Next to it stands a smaller, baby calf with two extra legs growing out of its back. These freaks are unlabeled, but it is reported that both came from the Abbey's farm, as did the pig hairballs.

An entire menagerie of stuffed animals are displayed in the museum's Larry Epping Wildlife Exhibit (Larry was a graduate of the Abbey college, a wealthy local businessman, and evidently a good shot). A full-size buffalo, elk, wolf, and grizzly bear stand mute beneath a big moose head, along with countless smaller critters. A mountain lion chomps down on a rocky mountain mule deer, a bobcat lunges at a grouse. For unknown reasons a screech owl is perched atop a miniature high voltage power line tower, suggesting that the tiny bird is actually as big as a bus.

Mount Angel Abbey stands on a lovely hilltop in Oregon's wine country, the kind of plush setting that normally might consign a quirky museum collection to the dumpster or the compost heap. It endures, though hard to find and certainly not prominent on campus. When asking around about how to find the museum, some of the staff members didn't even seem to know there was one.