The Atlas Obscura Guide To Minneapolis

62 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Updated October 24, 2024

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Unusual Attractions in Minneapolis

The anechoic chamber

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Orfield Labs Quiet Chamber

This lab's maddening silence is good for business but bad for sanity.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

City Salvage

An architecturally-focused antique shop.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

20,000 pieces in a Frank Gehry-designed building.

House of Balls

Minneapolis, Minnesota

House of Balls

Funhouse of found art and participatory sculpture.

Spoonbridge and Cherry

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Spoonbridge and Cherry

A toweringly silly piece of modern art has been delighting locals since the 1980s.

Rib options

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Herbivorous Butcher

A butcher shop in Minneapolis has all the meats and cheeses you’d expect from any of its kind—except that all the products are vegan.

The Sidewalk Harp.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sidewalk Harp

A whimsical sensor instrument for Minneapolitans to play on their walks to work.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Elf Door at Deming Heights Park

Enter the Forest of the Elves.

See All 62 Things To Do in Minneapolis

Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Minneapolis

Rib options

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Herbivorous Butcher

A butcher shop in Minneapolis has all the meats and cheeses you’d expect from any of its kind—except that all the products are vegan.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gatherings Cafe

An eatery within the Minneapolis American Indian Center writes colonial ingredients out of the story of Native American cuisine.

Gold Medal Flour Mill

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mill City Museum and site of "The Great Mill Disaster"

When flour explodes, it's not a pretty sight.

The entrance to Owamni.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Owamni

The dishes at this restaurant by The Sioux Chef celebrate indigenous heritage.

See all 5 Places to Eat in Minneapolis

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Atlas Obscura Itineraries

8 Places to Get Musical in Minnesota

Two 20th-century musical figures tower over the state of Minnesota: Prince Rogers Nelson and Robert Allen Zimmerman. (That's Prince and Dylan to us mere mortals.) And while the Gopher State definitely celebrates its favorite musical sons, much of the state has a musical bent to it, from a singing beach to a room so devoid of sound is makes a musical madness all its own.

Basshenge is a big homage to a big instrument.

Explore Minneapolis, Minnesota

Architecture 11

Architectural Oddities 10

Art 7

Sculptures 6

Outsider Art 5

Music 4

Museums 4

Sacred Spaces 4

Water 4

History & Culture 4

Minneapolis Leaderboard

Places Added

Places Edited

Places Visited

Recent Minneapolis Activity

K

kschalow11

wants to go to Brickmania GHQ
K

kschalow11

has been to Prospect Park Water Tower
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kschalow11

has been to University of Minnesota Shoe Tree
K

kschalow11

wants to go to Grain Belt Bottle Cap Sign
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kschalow11

wants to go to Beltrami Park / Maple Hill Cemetery

Stories About Minneapolis

Beneath downtown Minneapolis, Schieks Cave has surprisingly warm groundwater, evidence of a subterranean heat island.

The Strange Heat Island Lurking Beneath Minneapolis

An urban explorer ventured deep below downtown in search of Schieks Cave. What he found changed science.

by Sarah Scoles

August 13, 2024

Podcast: Owamni

Visit a restaurant dedicated to decolonizing food and honoring Indigenous meal traditions, with its award-winning chef Sean Sherman.

by The Podcast Team

February 14, 2024

Podcast: The Westgate With Rico Gagliano

The inside story of a flop that changed one theater's history.

by The Podcast Team

February 2, 2023

A packed Betty Crocker test kitchen in 1935.

The Unsung Women of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens

For many Crockettes, the job was glamorous, fulfilling, and "almost subversive."

Podcast: Gold Medal Flour

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

December 27, 2021

Podcast: The World’s Quietest Room

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

October 18, 2021

Podcast: Gold Medal Flour

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

A young Bob Dylan, not long after leaving Minnesota.

For Sale: A Hidden Trove of Correspondence With Bob Dylan

The papers of Tony Glover, "musician's musician" and journalist, include many other luminaries as well.

by Matthew Taub

November 18, 2020

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