Mel Fisher's Treasures in Key West

A lot of amazing artifacts to see. We learned a lot about the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The second floor has a lot of good information about underwater archeology. I learned way more than I expected.

Staff gave us a warm welcome. Museum celebrates the amazing hard work and success of Mel Fisher. The displays of treasures beautifully presented.

Price was a bit higher than expected, but it did present lists of interesting information. About Mel Fisher, about searching for and preserving the treasures, much info about boat transportation in the 1500-1800s including treasures and slavery, etc.

Wonderful museum and story about Mel, found the store on Duval..Jim was amazing and found this beautiful ring for me

Wonderful and amazing adventure. Great exhibits. Fascinating tales.

Wonderful museum about Mel Fisher. There is real treasure from his finds in the museum!

Enjoyed it a lot. Ive known the story from the original national geographic episode and wanted to see the emeralds. So beautiful!!Todays the day to go!!

Excellent all around. Mel Fisher was an amazing with an amazing story. The treasure he discovered was incredible and efforts to keep it were legendary. Godspeed to Mel and his family.

When it was raining this morning in Key West I did not want to go to a museum. I thought a museum would be really boring. This is quite possibly the best money Ive ever spent. What an amazing story. Highly recommended to anybody

The museum is great and tells the story of both Mel and the ships. Lots of interesting artifacts and history. The staff is incredibly friendly. I especially enjoyed visiting with Jason who told me more about the Fisher story and the area. He also told me to make sure to visit in the future because they are in the process of adding an additional 10,000 sq feet to the museum.

Very Interesting!! See this and Ship Wreck Museum

I visited here during a trip to Key West. As I went through I realized that the day that I visited was actually Mel Fishers birthday. I had an awesome time. There was a lot of information and cool treasure on display. The staff was pleasant and there was no wait on Sunday afternoon. We paid the $ for the audio addition which is only for downstairs. If you love learning, youll be happy to visit here.

Really neat place.At ur own pace read exhibits has history behind many wrecks.Actual artifacts.Gift shop.Didnt find the gold bar u could pick up July2022

Very informative! Overall, a great place to bring the family. It’s been years since I was here and was disappointed to see that they closed down the store they had in the rear of the building.The entry prices are reasonable, as well.Thank you!

Not to be missed in key west. Pre purchased tickets online to save a few dollars. The video at the beginning is a great introduction to the museum. After watching it, all of us (2 parents and 3 kids- 15, 11, 9were very interested to see the displays and artifacts. If you only have time for one key west museum this should be it. Not a huge place so it can be experienced in an hour or less. If you are interested in archeology, history, treasure, diving, being rich, or thinking about being rich, this is for you. I did not do the behind the scenes tour but if I have the chance to go back I will.

Beautiful museum. A niche gallery for sure, but when it comes to documenting the discovery of the Atoche, it was a very in-depth experience. One of several worthy stops if you are interested in the importance of Key Wests importance in the early history of the Americas.

Mel Fisher Maritime museum is a great historical stop in Key West. It has good history about everything it took for Mel Fisher to come up with his bounty, from beginning with the planning as well as the actual dive operation, and lastly the legal battles to fight off greedy governments from taking all of his hard work. There are a lot of historical artifacts and interesting facts about sailing back in the 1600s. The first floor is dedicated to the gold, silver, jewelry and artifacts of the man shipwrecked in the second floor is dedicated mostly to historical aspects of the African slave trade. Outside there is an area dedicated to Cuban refugees, however if you read the placard‘s you’ll find that the people responsible for printing these placard‘s are no fans of free Cubans. Their writings are absurd and do everything they can to make the communist government of Cuba and Fidel Castro to appear to be anything other than the monsters that they are. Hopefully they will be corrected and changed. Other than the absurd placard’s this is a five star visit.

Such a great museum! Its really worth it to pay the extra $2 for the audio tour. Truly fascinating and some gorgeous items. If youre a history buff or youre intrigued by pirates, stop by!

Fun experience for my wife and me, although it goes fairly quickly so I suggest taking your time. I would’ve liked to have seen more treasure - gold, precious gems, etc. There is really only one room where these items are located and it’s a rather small selection.

Way more than a treasure museum. Besides the treasure stuff, there is a top-tier presentation about the Atlantic Slave Trade, how it interacted with piracy, and Key West involvement with slavery including the African Burial Ground at Higgs Beach.

Wonderful story, sad bits, exciting bits and incredible perseverance. Many facts that I didn’t know and how they pulled and preserved the treasures. Take as long or short as you want, can be in and out in under an hour. Watch the video at the very beginning for sure. Don’t need the audio tour guide. There is plenty of info w/o it. The gift shop is nice, but expect to spend some coin to get a reproduction.

I had to see this place. Although not as extensive as we would have hoped, it didnt disappoint. Be sure and watch the little movie by Mel Fischers son right when you walk in. It sets the tone and tells you all about what you are going to see. Gold, silver, coins, jewelry, weapons- pieces of eight, amazing emeralds. A jeweled cross and gold fit for a pope. We did it in 1 hr but we hurried.

The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum is an all time favorite of mine for many years. Nothing has changed. I learn something new on each visit. Dont forget to read the lady pirate poster. Those were tough times, and the lady pirates were just as fierce as the guys.

Great museum to learn more about searching for treasure near Key West and pirate history!!

Have you ever wanted anything so profoundly you would do ANYTHING to achieve it? I mean give up your familys house to fund this project, research beyond the point of obsession, ask your family to back you, join you on this journey, work day and night, battle weather, driven harder than anything else you could imagine?To win the battle and find the location on the bottom of the ocean floor, borrow more money, hire scientists, invent a whole new branch of science in order bring artifacts, lost to eternity, back to the surface only to have the US government smile and say, "Mine!"? It happens. To good people. Your government will let you take all the risk, do all the work, conquer the battle and swoop in just to steal it all from you.Come to this museum to see how this story comes out. I didnt tell you all. Come celebrate the drive that can only come from deep passion. Unbelievable!

Very interesting Key West Museum that chronicles the life of Mel Fisher, his Wife, and Family, as they spent over 20 years off the coast of Key West looking for sunken Spanish Treasures. Their story is both amazing and tragic, and the Museum does an excellent job of laying out the whole story. The Museum contains several Treasures that they eventually discovered. Highly recommended!!!

This collection is massive, and its easy to lose track of time, even though there are only half a dozen rooms. I found I had been wandering through for nearly an hour without realizing it and almost missed my tour of the restoration lab. If you are an archaeology nerd you cant pass up the lab, well -worth the extra admission.

Disappointing... because you learn so less about the salvage of the Atocha and see only view gold and silver items. Recommendation: visit the Vasa Museum in Stockholm!!!!

This is a great place to visit. You can learn about Mel and how he dives for treasures, you can go through the museum and see the treasures he has found. You can have a self guided tour with audio or without.

Very interesting. A wonderful story of an amazing family. They never gave up and when they finally found the treasures after years searching they had to fight Florida and USA government for the rights of there findings.

Excellent! Do not miss this. Excellent coverage of Mel Fishers life, his search for the Atocha, methods of underwater Archeology and the story of the slave ship Henrietta Marie.

Visiting this maritime museumwas a fascinating experience! It was interesting to learn about the story of Mel Fisher and his search for Atocha. The artifacts from the 1600, the science of conservation and the displays on piracy, slave trade and the Cuban missile crisis were all very informative!

This was a great museum. The whole story of Mel Fishers discovery of the Atocha is detailed with many interesting exhibits. The audio tour was very good, as well. The 2nd floor went through other interesting historical periods ranging from the Slave Trade, Piracy/Privateers and up through the Cold War

For sure a visit worth when you are interested in treasure "hunting" and the story of the Atocha and other ships. You will hear and see the entire story of Mel Fisher, his family and crew with very nice artifacts in the display rooms.

This is a very interesting place with a wide variety of artifacts brought up from shipwrecks--everything from common tools and utensils to shining emeralds and silver. You get a good sense of both what life was like at the time the ships sank, and the painstaking process of finding and recovering their contents.I was especially tickled by the fact that Spain taxed jewelry at a lower rate than gold bars, which explains the big, unwieldy gold chains aboard the Atocha. Nobody was going to wear those, but it was cheaper to transport gold that way.The upstairs exhibits were good, too: more on what goes into salvaging sunken treasure, fun pirate lore, somber reminders of the horrors of the slave trade, and a look at a more recent bit of history--the Cuban Missile Crisis.Im deducting one star because the employee at the admission counter was unfriendly. I misspoke the amount a coupon was good for as I was getting it out of my wallet, and he told me in a sharp tone that they didnt have a coupon for that amount off, like I was trying to scam them out of an extra dollar or something. I corrected myself and tried to laugh it off but he didnt say a word or even crack a smile as he finished ringing up my admission.

It was nice to walk around to see the Mel Fisher Museum but was disappointed that there wasnt more and they filled it with other pieces of history.

I wish it had more Visual about the Henrietta slave ship ..lots of Writing but nothing from the Actual ship in there also it was just one small space ..The price should be cheaper for only 2 floors.

Neat exhibit with artifacts from the ship wrecks and treasure hunts. Top floor was more on other related maritime history. Friendly staff.

I will ask her what other reviewers have said:Pros- Definitely some fun artifacts to see!- If you’re willing to read plaques, learned a lot especially about privacy and the Keys.- Mildly diverting way to avoid the hottest part of the day.Cons- Staff was not horrible, but a bit terse and sarcastic. One of them basically followed us around while we read exhibits which was awkward.- More expensive than it should be considering how small it is.- Several exhibits away for research (that happens with museums, but they already have so few exhibits 😅)Overall, decently fun and we’re not at all sorry we went, but it didn’t blow us away. Probably not an amazing museum for kids either, since it’s mostly things to read.

If you love treasure hunting this is your place!!! Is definitely an informative place I really enjoy this museum. Recommend to watch the Mel Fisher documentary before visiting the museum.

If you have a fascination with pirates and treasure, definitely worth the visit. In a perfect world the tickets would be about $10 bucks but we still enjoyed the tour. Lots of authentic memorabilia and the AC blasts. Cool gift shop too. Picturing yourself finding treasure underwater that had been lost for 400+ years is exhilarating. Today’s the day!

I visited here in 93 when I was a kid and have been wating to go back for 20+ years. I finally made it! A couple of friends and I really really enjoyed the exhibit, we were running around like little kids. We enjoyed it so much in fact, that some of the staff came from the front and gave us an exclusive conversation with really cool info and stories that no one else would have gotten to hear! Perfect spot to escape some heat and and get a little bit of really cool hitorical knowledge!

If you have never seen Mels Magazine and TV interviews in the 70s and 80s you are in for a treat, if you have you will be amazed to see in person "some" of the treasures. Its $16 for simple General Admission and what you will learn and see will far outweigh the little bit of moola. Reared on the coast and I have seen amazing salvage but NOTHING of this magnitude. Pictures coming later, you must see it to believe it. If your a history buff you will love it.

We definitely needed more time here. There is so much information, so much to see and read. This guy really lived one hell of a life and this museum brings all the stories and tales together...and to life. Real artifacts.. its amazing. Its really something you have to experience in person. Looking at Pictures or watching a documentary is nice but when you walk through this museum, you really start to piece together the history of key west itself and the people that made it what it was/is. Id say its a must especially for any one at all involved in fishing or fascinated by sunken ships and treasure, tales of pirates, and true history.

Went to the museum and learned a lot! Its a small pricy ($18/per person-2020attraction that is conveniently placed (like most of key West).Its two floors and they have a 10min movie. Its a really interesting history of his discovery of the Atocha! I see that ships name a lot around town so Im guessing his discovery helped make key West what it is today! They said the family does not own any of the museum after the death of Mel.Check it out!

I read "Search for the Atocha" when I was a child and have always been excited about Mel Fishers treasure hunting. So being able to visit the museum was a cool opportunity. Our kids enjoyed the visit. There are a a lot of nice artifacts on display and informative exhibits. The audio tour feature is interesting and informative as well. The staff at the museum were friendly, and the price for admission seemed fair to us.

Excellent place, museum of the treasures at the end we went to the jewelry store an a very nice guy show us the coins and gave us a detail explanation, i was able to hold one coin in my hand, also took some pictures of a 60 pound silver bar, and we met the grandson of Mel Fisher, he came out and talked to us , very nice guy.I really recommend this place, people are very friendly.

Don’t waste your money here. It is not worth $15 a person. There is very little left from the gold that they found and the exhibit is small. They had to add Balseros from Cuba to extend your interest.

This was a very interesting place to visit. All the artifacts and history was fun to observe. It kind of makes you want to get out and explore. If your looking for something to do for a few hours I suggest giving this place a go.

Such an amazing museum to walk through. The video in the beginning really shows the struggle and journey. Spend the extra money and get the little speaker for a more guided tour. You learn cool facts that arent written on the walls and stuff. Seeing the treasure is a once in a lifetime thing. Now my husband wants to go searching for treasure🤣🤣🤣