Courtesy of the Great American Alligator Museum
The Great American Alligator Museum
“One minute, we were picking out a trinket at a Cajun gas station, and the next thing we knew we owned one of the largest collections of alligator salt and pepper shakers in the world,” said Liz McDade. After thirty years of collecting all things alligator, Liz and her husband Robert now own the Great American Alligator Museum on Magazine Street.
Six months before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they purchased a building in the Lower Garden District on Magazine that needed some work, especially after the storm. Their vision included keeping the architectural character of the mid-19th c. New Orleans neighborhood while showcasing America’s deeply-held fascination with the alligator through the couple’s massive collection of paraphernalia to the public.
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It took almost twenty years before the vision was finally brought to fruition, in part because of the struggle to secure contractors in post-Katrina New Orleans. When COVID-19 brought the world to a halt, the couple began cataloging and curating their whimsical collection in earnest. Liz even sewed the alligator patterned curtains for the street-front windows. The Great American Alligator Museum opened April 1, 2022 to little fanfare, but public interest grew quickly.
Courtesy of the Great American Alligator Museum
Exhibits of alligator skin bags at the Great American Alligator Museum
“Locals started popping in,” said Liz. As word spread, groups and tourists made their way to see the only museum in the world dedicated to Alligator Mississippiensis. “School tour groups, birthday parties, an art group from Tulane, and a Trinity Episcopal photography group have visited. It’s interesting, too, that kids respect it as a museum. Parents bring in little kids, two to three years old, teaching them about alligators. Kids love it.”
Tour busses, often loaded with groups from Japan and Europe, now make stops at the museum. There’s a painted plywood stand with an alligator wrangler wrestling with a big one. A hole was cut so visitors can stick their face through in the guise of the muscled wrestler holding the beast’s mouth open. It’s all touristy kitsch, and people love it.
Courtesy of the Great American Alligator Museum.
Tsobichi greenriverensis; a 50 million year old fossil from Lincoln County, Wyoming; part of the McDade's collection at the Great American Alligator Museum.
Once inside, you’re greeted by a thirteen-foot-long stuffed alligator with jaws agape. Further in you’ll see a live baby alligator inside a large aquarium tank. His predecessor, “Killer,” outgrew the enclosure and was released into the wild at twenty-four inches long. The live baby gator serves as a prompt to highlight the success of the alligator farming and hunting industry in Louisiana, which through conservation, management and sustainable farming practices, has returned the alligator population in Louisiana from around 100,000 in the 1970s to over two million today. Today, Louisiana has more alligator farms than any other state. Eggs are harvested from the wild and raised in captivity to about four feet long. Wild-born alligators’ survival rate before reaching four feet is less than 15%. Farmers release 10% of their hatched gators into the wild, a practice that has greatly increased the population and built a strong market for decades to come. “Farming has been great for alligators and farmers. It’s a resource,” said Liz. “[The comeback of alligators in the wild] is a very good representation of good management.”
Courtesy of the Great American Alligator Museum.
A 1,500,000-year-old alligator fossil from Florida, part of the McDade's collection at the Great American Alligator Museum.
Wandering through the museum, visitors can also view paleontological exhibits, including a ten-foot long, 1,500,000-year-old alligator fossil from Florida. But the real prize of the collection is a fifty million year old fossil from near Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming—one of only two complete specimens ever found. Such educational explorations of the creature accompany the plethora of handbags, wallets, and other vintage accessories on display, all made from alligator hide. And, of course, the kitsch is aplenty; toys, antique mementos, keychains, and baubles you can’t help but grin at. This preps you well for the temptations of the gift shop: After all that, who could resist leaving without an alligator claw backscratcher or a huggable plush stuffed gator for the kids? gatormuseum.com
