Hand of Man Museum

This place surprised me, but in a good way! We were expecting a small place that we'd be done exploring in 30 minutes. We spent around 3 hours in there browsing through all the artifacts. I'm from Pakistan and got to see photos and pieces collected from there during the owner's travels - it was unexpected and made me so happy to see! The owner's travel experiences and seeing them incorporated in the museum, along with his family story, was heartwarming. Amazing place and well worth stopping at.

What an amazing and interesting collection. We recommend everyone who visits Vancouver Island takes the time to visit this absolutely brilliant museum.
A very diverse collection with lots of information provided.
A real highlight for us was meeting the boss Jim Shockey who is the nicest museum boss you will ever meet.

Very cool museum to check out! It's lime nothing I've seen before. You pay by donation, which is nice and there is so much to see. Not the easiest location to get to, but you drive, you'll be fine. Staff are nice and there is a cute gift shop at the end of it.

I found this to be a really unique and almost overwhelming collection of things that follow a unique loose group of genres, from curios to international natural history level natural artifacts. But it is clearly centered around themes relevant to the cowichan valley indigenous culture, African tribal cultural artifacts, modern classics of western culture, paleontology... And a lot of taxidermy. A... Lot... Of taxidermy. But it is almost entirely museum level taxidermy, and very impressive, if you appreciate that particular craft. There is a very unique personal narrative loosely woven through the whole experience as well, and you feel like perhaps you've spent some time listening to a really genuinely interesting individual. How one person managed to actually amass such a collection, is really quite a feat unto itself. It's a great use of the building, and a very worthwhile excuse to drive out to Maple Bay. I happened to have also visited the Royal BC in Victoria a few days prior (under heavy renovation unfortunately)... At least for now, this was more interesting to me, and more worthy of the donation.

Visiting the island from Calgary, we heard about the hand of man museum from family in the area. We had some free time, so we decided we would check it out. I expected some artifacts, maybe a few cool pieces and some fairly interesting central piece. This would have been worth the money for admission if you ask me.

This museum blew my expectations out of the water. This hand curated collection features exhibits and artifacts that put other, more famous museums on the island to shame. After the first large room, featuring the second largest intact wooly mammoth tusks in the world, I was absolutely in awe.

The museum features everything from Dinosaur bones to modern art, all curated and organized as well as upwards of 2000 artifacts can be. The hand of man museum is not only the best museum on Vancouver Island, but one of the best in Canada.

Absolutely do not miss if you are a fan of natural history, human history, modern art, music, or just things in general.

Our visit was absolutely INCREDIBLE! Our boys 5 & 3 loved it and were entertained for hours (our 5 year old could have stayed longer - the guided ipad really helps keeps little ones attention). It’s amazing that it’s by donation, so that everyone has a chance to go, regardless. We even got to meet Jim and he joyfully took pics with us. Love the heart behind this museum and the stories and treasures within it.

An amazing experience seeing the history and info of different cultures! Loved the iPad for visual interaction and more info on all the interesting pieces in this museum/gallery!