Home of the World's Oldest Ham and World's Oldest Peanut!
(Keep tabs on the World's Oldest Ham 24/7 with the live feed of our HAM CAM.)
​The ham in the center is THE ham. (The one with his own Twitter account.) In 1902, one of P.D. Gwaltney Jr.'s cured hams was overlooked, and for 20 years, it hung from a rafter in a packing house. By 1924, the pet ham was kept in an iron safe which was opened daily for guests to view, and it was advertised as the world’s oldest Smithfield ham. Gwaltney fashioned a brass collar for the ham and took it to shows and expositions to exhibit the preservative powers of his smoking method. The ham was featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in 1929, 1932 and 2003.

​Founded in 1976, the Isle of Wight County Museum tells the story of the county through its interactive exhibits including a turn-of-the-century country store as well as displays interpreting colonial history, the Smithfield ham industry, the Blackwater River, the Civil War and the Cold War. 

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