Day 4
Thursday
To
Guymon OK
Tinkertown (in the town of Sandia NM) was a creation of Ross Ward and his legacy is continued by his family. “The Show Must Go On!” There are lots of tiny wooden carvings and small dioramas. It appears that much of his work was done with tongue-in-cheek. This is our second time visiting and we will probably go back again.
In Tucumcari NM we spotted a neat monument to Route 66. It stands in front of the town exhibit hall. The big find for us in this town was the Mesalands Community College’s Dinosaur Museum.
Interestingly, they cast their dinosaur finds in bronze to better preserve them. This allows people to touch them without wearing out the original fossils. All the bronze work is done there. When it comes to dinosaurs we both turn into little children. What fun!
Next we visited the XIT Museum in the town of Dalhart TX. The museum contains exhibits on the XIT Ranch and ranching equipment, wagons and several period rooms including a wedding chapel. It also hosts changing exhibits on various collections of hats, guns, cameras and other historical items.
Oh, why the name XIT? That symbol on a branding iron was nearly impossible to erase and replace. Cattle rustlers had to go elsewhere to steal.
You’ll see a fascinating picture of a large wooden door. The wood has been branded with different designs. Which symbol would you pick?
Due to a time zone change (going from Mountain Time to Central Time) we lost an hour and arrived later to the museum than we planned. We had about ten minutes to run around and take pictures before closing. Still, it was worth visiting.
The giant, bow-legged cowboy that Ellen is pictured under is supposedly ‘scary’ at night. He looked pretty rusty and unkept to us but not scary. He is known as “Big Tex” (about 20 feet tall) but is not to be confused with “Big Tex” of the State Fair of Texas Statue (55 feet tall). Our statue was supposedly the entrance to a building long ago. No, children, he wasn’t born on a horse and therefore bow-legged.
Don’t forget to click on the slide pictures to see an enhanced and larger view. Some of them may not look like much until you click on them. Expanding them can give you and interesting view.
The mural of the boy (in Tucumcari) with the two snakes (above) might look interesting but watch what happens when you click on it. We couldn’t figure out what it was about. If you know, let us in on it. Thanks!
