The Lodge Museum of Cast Iron Showcases the South’s Signature Cookware

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The Lodge Cast Iron Museum

Photo credit: Jeff Adkins

Posing for selfies in front of the World’s Largest Cast Iron Skillet, a group of visitors admires the colossal cookware, which measures more than 18 feet long from handle to handle, weighs 14,360 pounds and is wide enough to fry 650 eggs. Understandably, the gigantic skillet has been a gigantic draw since the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron opened in South Pittsburg in 2022.

Despite the pan’s “wow” factor, museum manager Shannon Nelms wants newcomers to know there’s much more to see inside this unique showcase of cast iron history, memorabilia and interactive displays.

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“A lot of people come in and they just want to see the large skillet and maybe aren’t aware of the other exhibits,” Nelms says. “The thing that really makes my heart sing is when people come out and they’re emotional and they’re sharing their stories and wonderful memories that we have triggered of their past that may have been buried somewhere.”

The Lodge Cast Iron Museum opened in 2022 in South Pittsburg, where the Lodge foundry has operated for more than 125 years.

The Lodge Cast Iron Museum opened in 2022 in South Pittsburg, where the Lodge foundry has operated for more than 125 years. Photo credit: Jeff Adkins

Founding a Foundry at Lodge Cast Iron

The idea for the museum has been years in the making. It all started with Bob Kellermann, former CEO of Lodge Cast Iron and a descendant of Joseph Lodge, who opened the foundry in this small southeast Tennessee town in 1896.

“The timing was finally right for us to employ this,” Nelms says. “So we took the vision of those past ideas and combined them with where we are currently. And I believe what we have put together far exceeds any of the expectations over the years.”

In addition to the oversized frying pan, here’s a roundup of the museum’s must-see exhibits.

See more: Lodge Foundry in South Pittsburg Cooks up an American Icon

The Lodge Cast Iron Museum

Photo credit: Jeff Adkins

1. How Cast Iron Is Made

The How Cast Iron Is Made exhibit demonstrates the entire process, from molding and pouring to seasoning and packaging. All Lodge products are ready to use straight out of the box and no longer require seasoning by the consumer.

“We get so many requests for foundry tours, and right now we do not offer them,” Nelms says. “So the first exhibit that really garners a huge amount of attention is How It’s Made. It provides that connection to what we do, and I think we’ve really pulled that off through the interactive display.”

2. Cast Iron Food and Culture

With videos of chefs using cast iron cookware and displays that illustrate all types of Southern cuisine, this museum exhibit shows how cast iron culture reaches from Appalachian and soul food to Cajun and Creole. Museum planners partnered with the Southern Foodways Alliance to show the various ways cast iron has played a role in the region’s food.

“People learn how to use a wok, for example, for multiple purposes,” Nelms says. “They walk away knowing that you can cook anything on any heat source with cast iron, and it’s versatile.”

See more: 8 Hearty Cast-Iron Recipes

world’s largest cast iron skillet

The Lodge Cast Iron Museum features the world’s largest cast iron skillet, among other exhibits. Photo credit: Jeff Adkins

3. Mythrusters

The Mythrusters exhibit seeks to bust long-standing misconceptions about cast iron. Here, guests can learn the truth about rust and cast their votes in the never-ending soap or no soap debate.

“We get a lot of interactive discussions there, individuals who say, ‘I told you we could do this. I told you we couldn’t do that,’” Nelms says.

4. Sizzling Surprises

The museum also pays homage to notable collectors, like the two high school sweethearts who amassed more than 13,000 pieces of Lodge cast iron cookware, and features a Lodge legacy gallery of antique pans, roasters and, of course, skillets. Visitors will find a few surprises, too, like the small 1990s skillets bearing the Grateful Dead logo and the collection of novelty figurines, from cats to turtles, crafted during the Great Depression to boost company sales. Fans of TV and movie nostalgia will enjoy the wall of videos with cameo appearances of cast iron throughout the years on Grace & Frankie, the animated film Tangled and more. There’s even a wall with touch screens for visitors to share their own cast iron stories.

See more: 4 Lodge Cast Iron Skillet Recipes for Winter

The Lodge Cast Iron Museum

Photo credit: Jeff Adkins

5. Pots & Pans of the Past & Present at the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron

The oldest mass producer of cast iron in the U.S., Lodge now sells its durable products in over 70 countries.

“The big-picture takeaway of the museum is where hard-core determination, grit and ingenuity have taken us in our manufacturing history and what it’s provided to American culture, from how the company survived the Great Depression to preseasoning our pieces in 2002, which was a game changer,” Nelms says. “And then our latest adventure is being able to provide colored USA Enamel on-site. This company keeps evolving and providing products to the world.”

Museum guests, whether they’re serious cooks, history buffs or curiosity seekers, take away something else too, Nelms adds.

“This is a way for people to really have that one-on-one experience with the brand and tie people back to their own experiences with cast iron,” she says. “What we find is people are very much moved by the memories that the museum elicits in their own history.”

If You Go

Lodge Museum of Cast Iron

Location: 220 E. Third St., South Pittsburg

Open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central time

Admission is $10 plus tax and free for kids under 5

Phone: (423) 403-7707

Website: lodgecastiron.com/museum

1 Comment

  1. Diane Hinkle says:

    I love my Lodge skillets. They were part of my learning to cook. I watched my grandmother make breakfast in her big skillet and my mother do the same. Great meals were prepared in those cast iron jewels. So, when I got married, it was just natural to have my own skillets. I cooked things in mine that I had not seen done before. I always bake my cornbread in my skillets and I have different sizes to use depending on the number I’m cooking for. Another thing I love making in my iron skillet is Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Comes out perfect every time. I could write a book about the myriad foods I cook in my cast iron cookware. All my favorites.

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