There is a customized "Country" gallery featuring unusual and intriguing "believe it or nots" from Branson celebrities. Don't miss the full-sized limousine with a heart-shaped Jacuzzi built into the trunk! And you'll be amazed by the detail of a 4-foot-high cowboy made from toothpicks.

Extraordinary primitive ancestral artifacts, unusual art and collectibles, miniatures and entertaining video displays are featured in a variety of creative museum galleries. Check out the Marine gallery, unique to land-locked Branson, which includes an actual submarine periscope and an 8-foot aircraft carrier constructed of matchsticks. Other galleries focus on unusual hobbies, "Ripley's Study", and animal and human oddities.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums and odditoriums highlight the life and oddities collection of Robert L. Ripley, who was one of the world's most famous people. An artist, cartoonist, explorer and collector, he was an eccentric and a compulsive traveler.

When his famous Believe It or Not! cartoon took off, Ripley became a world traveller, seeking stories of bizarre and unusual proportions to put in his internationally known feature. Ripley found hundreds of ideas for his cartoon in untouched, primitive areas and in unconventional cultures like that of India and the Orient.China was his favorite destination. Following his journey to Asia, he modeled much of his life after the Chinese way.

Ripley was truly an eccentric fellow. He was always very shy, but in contrast, very flamboyant in his dress and in his desire to seek attention.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! continues to be a popular newspaper and magazine feature and spin-offs into television, videos and books are as popular as the Museums that house his incredible collection of oddities.

So, if you're looking for something different to do, make Ripley's Believe It or Not! number 1 on your list. Ripley's seems to take you into a different world...but sometimes reality is stranger that fiction. Ripley's Believe It or Not! definitely rates a 10 on the Richter scale!

This year Ripley's Believe It or Not! offers extreme values on several family vacations packages, as well as, packages for schools, churches, and organizations. For more information, call (417) 337-5300.