It may not have eerie cults, an albino monk assassin or the mystery of Paris's Louvre chronicled in the Dan Brown smash bestseller, but the new exhibit "The Da Vinci Experience" at Utah Valley State College's Woodbury Art Museum in Orem may help unlock some of the Renaissance man's secrets.

The exhibit contains over 60 working replicas of machines, devices and vehicles based on the original drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. From a bicycle to flying contraptions to military machines and engineering marvels, visitors can travel back in time to 13th century Italy and get inside the mind of the celebrated artist/inventor/engineer/philosopher/scientist.

One of seven identical traveling exhibits, The Da Vinci Experience began in the late 1950s when a young craftsman in Florence, Italy, began building scale replicas based on da Vinci's designs and descriptions for museums. The diverse array of machines and devices are constructed of wood, metal and other materials that would have been available at the time, said UVSC Woodbury Art Museum registrar Robin DeSpain.

From a gunboat to an armored tank to a deadly looking "war wagon" designed to hew down enemy soldiers on the field of battle with giant spinning mechanical scythes, the reproductions are thought-provoking and a testament to da Vinci's genius. Reproductions of his sketches, drawings and notes as well as full-size copies of 11 of his most famous paintings (including Mona Lisa and Virgin of the Rocks) are included in the self-guided tour.

Though not all his theoretical machines work in practice -- such as his pre-cursor to the bicycle or his flying wing, they are cool to look at DeSpain said.

"He didn't know you needed curvature for lift (on a wing)," she said. "He's a genius, but he's not perfect."

Though the exhibit opened just this month and runs through Oct. 4, scores of school groups, youth groups, students and families have already made The Da Vinci Experience a destination, including a group of sixth graders from Oak Hills Elementary in Bountiful that explored the second-floor museum next to Nordstrom's inside the University Mall on Tuesday morning.

Several of the machines are hands-on and anyone can investigate The Chamber of Mirrors or try his hand at building a replica model of da Vinci's portable bridge.

"They're really modern and not of his time," Alexis Kearsley said of da Vinci's machines. It shows that "what you try, you can do."

A classmate, Tanner Redding, said the exhibit taught him how intelligent da Vinci actually was and how much his creations have contributed to modern-day machines, vehicles and conveniences.

"He's really helped us over the years," he said. "It's amazing how many things he made."

DeSpain said the museum's goal with The Da Vinci Experience exhibit, its first major exhibit, is to create greater awareness in the community of what the UVSC Woodbury Art Museum has to offer residents and families. They want to illustrate that culture and art isn't limited only to paintings hung on walls.

"We want contemporary art, what's going on now for students on campus and their profession, but also to (attract) people in the community with the 'ain't-it-neat' factor," she said.