Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum - Orrtanna, Pennsylvania - Unique Collection of Elephants

Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum is located at 6019 Chambersburg Road in Orrtanna, Pennsylvania on Route 30, between the old and new Lincoln Highway routes. The Museum represents one of the largest personal collections of elephants in the world. The Museum houses over 6,000 elephants from around the world.

The elephant collection is not only diverse in terms of its multi-cultural aspect, but is unique because the elephants are made out of different materials and substances.

The collection of elephants is extremely diverse. Visitors will see elephants of all different types and sizes. There is even a life-sized talking elephant outside the museum by the road, called Miss Ellie. Miss Ellie is a 9.5 ft tall white elephant that talks about the museum, the area, and tells a few jokes before getting sleepy. Another smaller sized elephant is called Commander Robert Eli and is situated by the fish pond.

The elephants in the collection range from sculptures, to elephant-decorated ornaments, to stuffed animals, to elephant appliances, to children's toys. Examples of elephants in the collection include unusual items such as an elephant lamp, a sculpted human head with small elephants coming out from it, an elephant hair dryer, an elephant potty chair, and an elephant pulling a 24-karat gold circus wagon. There are also some elephants in the collection that have some sort of celebrity association to them, such as Lana Turner's silverware and Cher's embroidered pillowcases.

Most of the collection is housed in two narrow long rooms. Though there are no labels under the items, Mr. Ed is more than willing to recount all the information on the item from where he got it to how much it cost.

Ed Gotwalt, owner of Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum, started collecting elephants when he received an elephant as a wedding gift. Since then, Mr. Ed has been collecting elephants. When his collection overtook the house and grew to such a massive proportion, his wife made him open a museum in 1975.

Mr. Ed accepts donations to the Museum, if a visitor wishes for his or her elephant to become part of the collection. In some cases, Mr. Ed will buy the elephant item.

In addition to the Elephant Museum, there is also the Candy Room, which has a huge selection of `old-time candy' and fresh roasted peanuts. The gift shop offers a huge variety of elephant gifts and a number of unusual gifts. The selection of gifts displayed in the shop frequently changes and some of them are even from different parts of the world. Visitors can also walk through Mr. Ed's truck, which contains a massive number of Pez and magnets.

The Elephant Museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm. There is no admission charge to the Museum. The Museum can be reached by calling (717) 352-3792 or can reach Mr. Ed by calling (717) 873-5145.