Many small towns have them – the abandoned motel that’s almost completely hidden in overgrown grass that spurs curiosity and sends us fleeing when the old man with the shotgun comes out to shoo trespassers away.

Red Trailer Motel, an exhibition on display at the Des Moines Art Center Downtown, gives viewers the opportunity to wander around an old, abandoned motel without the fear of getting caught.

“It certainly feels like you’re there and you’re experiencing this little motel in its own element,” says Lisa Owens of Seattle.

Owens was at the exhibit’s opening Friday night.

Los Angeles assemblage artist Michael C. McMillen created the eerie environment around the actual Red Trailer Motel structure, which was excavated from the desolate Badlands of Wyoming.

To McMillen, the installation represents American progression.

“It’s a compilation of a place that I’ve seen in the past,” he says.

“Just thinking about the history of the United States in the 20th century and how it went from being one of the great manufacturing centers of the world to one of the great consuming centers of the world in a span of 100 years.”

“So in a lot of ways it’s very much about the American dream.”

The installation, which includes audio and film, grinds on your senses, making you extremely aware and curious, he says.

McMillen says the motel scene isn’t necessarily meant to scare, but instead to bring back memories or a connection to a familiar time.

“It will speak to different people in different voices, based upon their own experiences, their own histories,” he says.

The exhibition includes passing through an old, rickety screen door and immediately stepping onto gravel.

On the ground lay remnants of the past – a dirty sink, a light pole, a trash can and even an old, rusty saw.

On the edge of the building is a sign that reads, “See UFO landing site, 1/2 mile.”

Old bottles, trunks and movie reels clutter the outside of the structure.

The installation is full of small details, such as the motel’s four locked doors, three of which have peepholes.

McMillen built miniature models of three different rooms, which when viewed through the peephole, look life-sized.

The rooms include such interiors as an old, underwater warehouse, a television screen and a dirty pool hall where a ball moves across the table by itself.

Viewers at the exhibition were surprised by what they saw through the peepholes.

“I love the scale of it,” says Sheila Mauck of Des Moines, who was at the exhibition opening.

“It kind of tricks the eye. Something unusual pops out at you.”

Mauck says her desire to look through the peephole is most likely a natural reaction.

“It’s what everyone secretly wants to be doing – looking in other people’s rooms,” she says.