[bap]

I think you might find that the larger metropolitan areas are as you say. As one gets away from the coasts and into more rural areas you'll find smaller museums. Museums that are very bespoke and/or focused on a narrower curation target, etc.

[kjellsbells]

In the US, these museums can be brilliant, terrifyingly creepy, and everything in between.

I went to one in a tiny town in southern Arkansas a few years ago, dedicated to a river boat disaster shortly after the civil war. It was tiny, weird, and brilliant.

https://www.sultanadisastermuseum.com/

[msisk6]

Yes, very much so. Some of the interesting small rural museums across the western US I've been to include:

* Museum of the Fur Trade near Chadron, Nebraska * The Santa Fe Trail Center near Larned, Kansas * Ash Fork Route 66 Museum in Ash Fork, Arizona * National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado * American Windmill Museum in Lubbock, Texas * Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum near Ashland, Nebraska

The rural US has many local museums and most are surprisingly well done and very informative.

[JohnFen]

Even in large metro areas, there tend to be small specialty museums. The problem is that if you don't know they're there already, you're not likely to find them.

[tomjakubowski]

Don't think it's city/rural thing or a big city/little city thing. Los Angeles has dozens of tiny museums, often dedicated to obscure subjects (printing, neon art, Jurassic technology), and also some huge and rather well known ones (LACMA, the Getty).