The Living History Museum of Camping in Phelps, Wisconsin

In Wisconsin's Northwoods, nobody ever went "to the cabin" — they went to the camp, whether that meant a canvas tent, a camper, or the family cottage on the lake. A resort on North Twin Lake has turned that whole tradition into America's first living history museum of camping — a museum where the exhibits have beds, and guests are encouraged to sleep in them.

The collection spans a century, one decade per unit: two Prohibition-era luxury tents named for Al Capone and John Dillinger, who genuinely vacationed (and hid) in these woods — Dillinger's famous FBI shootout happened one lake chain over. The oldest known surviving Jim Dandy camper, hand-built by a couple on a Model T chassis, still has their itemized build receipt hanging inside.

There's a 1952 Lighthouse Double Decker — one of only eight left in existence, complete with patented central staircase and a martini-ready lower deck — and a gleaming 1965 Airstream.

Every cabin on the property carries its own exhibit on the Northwoods family vacation, and a central hall holds nearly two hundred artifacts, from a still-working 1960s crockpot to twenty-foot timeline banners tracing camping from canvas to glamping.

The commitment runs to the details: every unit comes with cocktail and recipe cards researched from primary sources for its decade, so visitors can eat and drink like 1952 before falling asleep in it. The exhibit hall is free to walk on weekends; the rest of the museum rents by the night.