Fiorentino, who died in 2017, wanted his collection of clocks and other antiques to be displayed in a free museum.

Not having ever traveled to Germany, he acquired all the clocks within a 200-mile radius from estate sales, auctions, and a Salvation Army around Minnesota.

[3] Fiorentino was more captivated by the beauty of the woodworking on the cuckoo clocks and old phonographs rather than their sound.

The museum is home to hundreds of cuckoo clocks, as well as other items such as phonographs and vintage musical instruments and geologic specimens.

Primarily from the 19th century, with a few dating back to the 1820s, most clocks are traditional Black Forest cuckoos: dark-stained linden wood, native to a particular area east of the Rhine in Germany.