The Thing museum
Yesterday I posted about a recent visit I made to the Last Supper Museum in Douglas, Arizona. On the same trip (in fact, on the same day) I also visited "The Thing" museum, which is off the I-10, about 70 miles north of Douglas (and 50 miles east of Tucson).
The two are both weird museums, but share no similarities beyond that.
The Last Supper Museum is the oddball passion project of an individual. The Thing, on the other hand, is highly commercialized and corporate-owned.
The commercialization begins with the numerous billboards advertising the museum up and down the I-10. Then, when you arrive, you find that it's part of a gas station/travel stop complex. To get to the museum itself you have to walk through a gigantic gift store.
The Thing wasn't always like that. It started out sixty years ago as a roadside attraction run by Thomas Binkley Prince. He displayed a few oddities, such as a car that he claimed had belonged to Hitler, as well as a mummified humanoid body that he called "The Thing" (the namesake of the museum).
Prince died in 1969, and the museum was eventually acquired by Bowlin Travel Centers, Inc.
In the 2010s, Bowlin expanded and updated the museum. They evidently decided to capitalize on the "Ancient Aliens" craze, because the majority of the museum is now devoted to telling the story of an extraterrestrial race, the RAH'thians, and their ongoing interaction with life on Earth, beginning with the dinosaurs and continuing through to the present day.
You walk through a winding exhibit hall, past life-size models of extraterrestrials and dinosaurs (and extraterrestrials fighting dinosaurs with laser guns). The models are pretty cool and very professionally done. The problem is that it all comes across as a bit jokey and tongue-in-cheek, which negates the weird factor.
Questions are frequently posed on the walls.
Finally you arrive at a room in which the original Thing is displayed. The connection between the Thing and the preceding dinosaurs and extraterrestrials wasn't clear to me.
It cost $5 to see the entire museum, which isn't a lot. If you happen to be driving down the I-10, I'd say go see it. But I wouldn't make a special trip to visit it.
More info: RoadsideAmerica.com; Wikipedia.
The two are both weird museums, but share no similarities beyond that.
The Last Supper Museum is the oddball passion project of an individual. The Thing, on the other hand, is highly commercialized and corporate-owned.
The commercialization begins with the numerous billboards advertising the museum up and down the I-10. Then, when you arrive, you find that it's part of a gas station/travel stop complex. To get to the museum itself you have to walk through a gigantic gift store.
The Thing wasn't always like that. It started out sixty years ago as a roadside attraction run by Thomas Binkley Prince. He displayed a few oddities, such as a car that he claimed had belonged to Hitler, as well as a mummified humanoid body that he called "The Thing" (the namesake of the museum).
Prince died in 1969, and the museum was eventually acquired by Bowlin Travel Centers, Inc.
In the 2010s, Bowlin expanded and updated the museum. They evidently decided to capitalize on the "Ancient Aliens" craze, because the majority of the museum is now devoted to telling the story of an extraterrestrial race, the RAH'thians, and their ongoing interaction with life on Earth, beginning with the dinosaurs and continuing through to the present day.
You walk through a winding exhibit hall, past life-size models of extraterrestrials and dinosaurs (and extraterrestrials fighting dinosaurs with laser guns). The models are pretty cool and very professionally done. The problem is that it all comes across as a bit jokey and tongue-in-cheek, which negates the weird factor.
Questions are frequently posed on the walls.
Finally you arrive at a room in which the original Thing is displayed. The connection between the Thing and the preceding dinosaurs and extraterrestrials wasn't clear to me.
It cost $5 to see the entire museum, which isn't a lot. If you happen to be driving down the I-10, I'd say go see it. But I wouldn't make a special trip to visit it.
More info: RoadsideAmerica.com; Wikipedia.
Comments
Why does "The Thing" have a lampshade over his junk ?
Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 12/17/24 at 05:34 AM
Next time you're farther up north, be sure to stop at Wall Drug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug
Posted by John S. on 12/17/24 at 06:29 AM
You can´t imagine how nice it is to live somewhere that billboards aren´t allowed.
Posted by F.U.D. in Stockholm on 12/17/24 at 11:56 AM
F.U.D. I assume the museum wants to keep a G rating. Or the artist didn't detail the area spoiling the whole effect.
Posted by eddi on 12/18/24 at 05:53 AM
@F.U.D. -- A piece of advice about developing characters in sci-fi stories is that it (supposedly) helps to give your aliens a few subtle human traits, like being modest about certain parts of their body. The idea (I think) is it makes it easier for readers to identify with them.
I know that when I see something like that, I subconsciously think "They're not so different from us," which, of course, solidified the impression that 'they' are real.
I know that when I see something like that, I subconsciously think "They're not so different from us," which, of course, solidified the impression that 'they' are real.
Posted by Phideaux on 12/18/24 at 12:29 PM
@F.U.D.: where else would he wear it? On his head?
Posted by Richard Bos on 01/04/25 at 09:07 AM
Category: Aliens | Museums | Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures | Arizona