The Key West Shipwreck Museum, formerly the Shipwreck Historeum, occupies a re-created 19th-century warehouse in Key West, Florida. Inside, actors, films, and actual artifacts combine to tell the story of 400 years of shipwreck salvage in the Florida Keys. The building itself is a re-creation of a 19th-century warehouse built by wrecker tycoon Asa Tift; the museum guide portrays Tift and speaks as he explains how this unusual industry provided the livelihood for the entire island at a time when it had the largest population in the state.
Many of the artifacts on display came from the 1985 rediscovery of the Isaac Allerton, which sank in 1856 on the Florida Keys reef and proved to be one of the richest shipwrecks in Key West's history, producing the Federal Wrecking Court's largest monetary award for salvage of a single vessel. You can climb the 65' lookout tower to imagine the breakers and the work of wreckers. Also on view are relics from Spanish galleons, including a silver bar salvaged from the Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas that guests are encouraged to try to lift.
Picture the 65' lookout tower above, and the artifacts filling the museum around it.