If you didn't see the sign out front, you would never guess what became of the old auditorium in Roslyn, a Northeastern South Dakota town of less than 200 people.

For the last 18 years, it's been home to the International Vinegar Museum.

You read that right. Vinegar.

Most South Dakotans know nothing about it, but thanks to the website Mental Floss, the entire world is now in on the secret.

Mental Floss just included it on a list of Bizarre Food Museums in the United States.

The museum houses 350 varieties of vinegar, has a test kitchen where you can come to see how vinegar is made, and helps you fond out about all of the possibilities of using vinegar more effectively in your life.

The museum is open three days a week (Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays) from June 1 to Labor Day Weekend.

International Vinegar Museum
International Vinegar Museum via Facebook
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One of the highlights each Summer is the International Vinegar Festival, complete with a parade, cooking demonstrations, vinegar tasting, and the crowning of the 'Royal Quart' - selecting the Vinegar Queen, Princess Vinaigrette, Miss Pickle, and Princess Sour.

This year's festival is Saturday, June 17.

The museum is the brainchild of author and vinegar expert Lawrence "Vinegarman' Diggs, who moved to Roslyn from San Francisco in 1989. Ten years later, he transformed the Depression-era brick building on Main Street into the world's only vinegar museum.

He even has his own website - VinegarMan.com (what else would it be?):

Mental Floss’ other bizarre U.S. food museums:

  • Jell-o Gallery – Leroy, NY
  • Spam Museum – Austin, MN
  • International Banana Museum – North Shore, NC
  • Popcorn Museum – Marion, OH
  • National Dairy Shrine Museum – Ft. Atkinson, WI
  • National Mustard Museum – Middleton, WI
  • Idaho Potato Museum – Blackfoot, ID
  • Harland Sanders (Col. Sanders) Café’ and Museum – Corbin, KY

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