205-665-2886Highway 203 west of Montevallo

Admission Free

This Shelby County museum features coal mining memorabilia and equipment and a collection of pictures of Aldrich during the town's peak coal mining days.

Open by appointment, call for details

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

205-328-9696

1520 16th St. N.

Admission charged

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a place of remembrance, revolution and reconciliation built at the site of the most tumultuous events of the Civil Rights era. More than a museum, it also serves as a forum for understanding the universal problem of racism-while chronicling the role Birmingham played in setting a people free. Nearby is the 16th Street Baptist Church (site of a 1963 bombing) and Kelly Ingram Park, home to stunning sculptures commemorating the struggle for freedom.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Birmingham Museum of Art

205-254-2565

2000 8th Ave. N.

Admission Charged

The largest municipally-owned art museum in the Southeast, the recently expanded and renovated Birmingham Museum of Art houses nationally-known art such as the Eugenia Woodward Hitt Collection of 18th century French painting and decorative art, the Beeson Collection of Wedgwood and extensive collections of American, Renaissance, Oriental and African art. A multi-level outdoor sculpture garden is a showpiece.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Hearts of Dixie Railroad Museum

800-943-4490

Calera exit off Interstate 65 in Shelby County

Admission Charged

Turn back the clock as you ride one of our historic trains consisting of passenger cars built between 1910 and 1950. Or ride Alabama's only operating narrow gauge steam locomotive, the Shelby & Southern! Visitors can see railroad artifacts and memorabilia in two restored depots. Call for dates, hours of operation and special event information

International Morot Sports Hall of Fame

256-362-5002

13198 Speedway Blvd., Talladega.

Admission Charged

This major museum in Talladega captures decades of the thrills, drama and excitement of auto racing the world over. Talladega is the site of two major NASCAR races each year. Each December the Motor Sports Hall of Fame holds its nationally televised induction ceremony in Birmingham.

Call for dates and hours of operation

McWane Center

205-714-8300

200 19th St. N.

Admission Charged

Adventures in learning surround you at McWane Center. The museum offers a hands-on, creative examination of the world around us in a renovated department store housing 150,000 square feet of educational science equipment and a 42,000 square-foot IMAX theater.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Sloss Furnaces

205-324-1911

20 32nd St. N.

Admission Charged

Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark is one of the few landmarks to the nation's industry. Shut down in the 1970s, Sloss was reborn as an industrial museum and a unique community gathering place for everything from music festivals to artistic metalworking. There's even the ghost of Theopholus Jowers, who swore that as long as there was a furnace in Jefferson County, he'd be there.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Smith Harrison Museum

205-669-4545

Depot Street, Columbiana

Admission Charged

Located in the Mildred Harrison Regional Library one block east of the Shelby County Courthouse, this museum boasts the largest collection of George and Martha Washington memorabilia outside Mount Vernon.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Southern Museum of Flight

205-833-8226

4343 73rd St. N.

See the light bulb that shed light on the Wright Brothers' first night flights, along with a 1925 crop duster, a 1910 Curtis "Pusher," and an F-4 Phantom jet at the Southern Museum of Flight, home to the wonders of early aviation and the heroic exploits of the world's original frequent fliers.

Call for dates and hours of operation