Thronateeska Heritage Center, Albany

About Thronateeska Heritage Center

Thronateeska Heritage Center displays a 20-foot skeleton cast of Zygorhiza, a 36-million-year-old whale ancestor with a shark preserved in its belly, alongside a half-scale model of the Wright Flyer that hangs in its Science Museum. Visitors explore exhibits on Southwest Georgia's railroad history through Albany's Union Depot, built in 1913 and served by five different rail lines, and examine over 100 surveying and mapping instruments dating to the eighteenth century in the Georgia Museum of Surveying and Mapping. The center also tells the story of Bobs Candy Company, which invented the Keller Machine to mass-produce candy canes, and explains how Georgia's first free-flowing artesian well shaped Albany's identity. The South Georgia Archives houses nearly 10,000 books, boxes, and items spanning 5,441 cubic feet. Located at Heritage Plaza on Albany's only remaining brick street, laid in 1913, Thronateeska serves students, families, and history enthusiasts. Kids three and under enter free, according to heritagecenter.org.