TOMBSTONE ARIZONA'S HISTORY & INFORMATION JOURNAL
TOMBSTONE ARIZONA'S HISTORY & INFORMATION JOURNAL
Roadside Americana - The THING?
by Janice
From the July 2022 issue of Tombstone Times
Roadside Americana - The THING?
by Janice
From the July 2022 issue of Tombstone Times
What if …?
What if … a young Mormon man, living in Graham County, Arizona between 1915 and 1945 who, at one time, owned a motel and service station in Safford – who between the years 1925 and 1928 served as elected sheriff of Graham County – was connected to “The Mystery of the Desert” – otherwise known as “The Thing?”
And, what if … a former Arizona lawyer, bored with the profession, opened a roadside curio stand near Barstow, California in the mid ‘50s and purchased, possibly from a catalog or a traveling salesman, the perfect “gaff,” gimmick, or hook to encourage the weary travelers along highway 91 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas to stop, stretch a while and spend a few cents to witness “The Mystery of the Desert?”
And, what if … the highway 91 expansion (that became Interstate 15) forced that curio shop owner to move his wares, along with the mysterious exhibit, to Highway 10 in Arizona between Benson and Willcox?
And, what if … after that man’s death in 1969, a major corporation bought that curio shop and has kept it open ever since, inviting you to visit with large yellow billboards, punctuated with a question mark, along with images of the various curios you might want to shop for, after, you find out what the “The Thing?” actually is?
AND … What if … That corporation has taken that “hook,” purchased in the mid-50s for a roadside curio shop in Barstow California and brought it – and a “story” about it into the 21st Century … OR … PERHAPS … back to the Mesozoic Era?
Billboards by the dozens for hundreds of miles have prompted many a backseat traveler to beg to stop
What if?
I can tell you that the history behind “The Mystery of the Desert” must be told before I tell you about our newest experience visiting Bowlin’s Travel Center off of Johnson Road Exit 322 just past stunningly beautiful Texas Canyon, where billboards by the dozens for hundreds of miles have prompted many a backseat traveler to beg to stop and see just what “The Thing?” truly is!
One of many dioramas Homer made before he became interested in the macabre and strange.
Library of Congress Image
“Hoozie Goozies” is what his family called the pieces of art, created out of papier mache, pieces of animal fur, hair clippings, animal bones, and other desert treasures Homer Tate may have gathered while wandering the southern Arizona deserts of Graham and Pinal Counties, searching for the bits and pieces needed to craft each piece, bizarre as it may have been, with his artistic skills. Homer didn’t always create obscure and odd pieces; in the beginning, he practiced his skill fashioning tiny replicas of town streets, school grounds with children playing, and dioramas with scenes depicting farmers picking cotton. It may have been fun to spend his creative time on such projects, but soon enough, his imagination burgeoned into the macabre and strange. He realized that no one would pay him a plug nickel to see his dioramas of children playing in a school yard, but, perhaps if he created the unusual, the weird and unseen, and applied supposed stories of their origins to said objects, well, perhaps, one might just pay a thin dime to feel the thrill of witnessing something ancient and perhaps novel.
Homer Tate working on a shrunken head in his Safford, Arizona workshop.
Library of Congress Image
Before Homer Tate created his oddities for sale, he lived a life in Graham County, Arizona near Safford after moving from Utah with his pioneering Mormon family. He lived his life in the Gila Valley of Arizona working as a miner, a farmer and also operated a motel and fuel station for those traveling along the roadway. He was elected sheriff of Graham County and served from 1925 to 1928. It was some time after when he began fashioning “artifacts” made from paper, bones and mud – not to mention shoe polish. Creating shrunken heads, mermaids, mummies, and necklaces made of fingers or ears would eventually occupy all of Homer’s time, so much so, that he moved from his home in Safford to Apache Junction outside of Phoenix to open “Tate’s Curiosity Shop.” This move would open up more opportunities to work on, display, and sell his created oddities. His audience would be larger, but perhaps not large enough. Soon, he created and had printed a catalog where people far and wide could peruse his creature-like objects and decide which ones they might want to own for their collections. It was genius! Sideshows at carnivals all throughout the ages have enticed their gullible audiences to drop a dime to witness the unusual, the odd, the weird, and the unique. Tate, by way of his catalog, could now reach a larger audience, plus he had his curiosity shop where sales could be made to those who needed that shrunken head for their mantel at home.
T. Binkley Prince
Binkley Prince also wanted a larger audience. That audience would be attracted to his Barstow, California area curio shop with copious amounts of billboards enticing the weary travelers to stop for a cold drink along the highway and witness “The Mystery of the Mojave Desert,” also known as “The Thing”. Questions were posed with each billboard as to just what one might see should they stop and pay the small admission to see it. Cold drinks and souvenir shopping would be mentioned as well. I can imagine all the children in the back seat, their father having driven many miles towards their destination, seeing these large billboards along the way and begging the driver to please, pretty please, stop, so they can find out what “The Thing” really is!
Sometime in the mid ‘50s, Binkley Prince purchased the oddity, knowing that, with the right type of advertising, he could draw people in to pay to see what he had. One legend says it was a traveling salesman that had 3 of them with him and Binkley purchased one of them. Another possibility is that he saw the catalog that Tate put out and, with some forethought, ordered the item to draw more travelers to his curio shop.
Binkley Prince had more than a law degree, he had a vision and now this mysterious creature he purchased needed a promotion and a name. The name, perhaps taken from the 1951 film, The Thing, would draw people to stop; perhaps thinking that this curio shop might have something related to the “Thing” from the movie. But, customers wouldn’t realize that there was no connection until they paid their admission to see it. By that time, another dime or quarter went into the till and, most likely, soda and candy bar money too. Win – Win!
The THING curio shop on highway 91 near Barstow, California in the late 1950s
Davis Collection
That is until the highway department took over the land that Prince had his shop and home on. A decision was made and, by 1965, he and his wife, Janet, relocated their curio and curiosity to Cochise County, Arizona between Benson and Willcox just outside of Texas Canyon on Highway 86, which was soon to be Interstate 10.
The land was located high enough so that people coming from both directions would be able to see his roadside curio stand and the billboards – oh those large yellow billboards! With blue lettering and a huge question mark after the word Thing announcing the oddity they were placed along the highway stretching between El Paso and Phoenix and would create their new vision in Arizona. Yes, the curios would be a great sales item. After all, souvenirs of your travels are a must. That, along with a cold soda and a bag of chips or candy bar, would put money in the cash register and keep the Prince’s in business.
Binkley Prince didn’t just purchase the strange creature(s); he built a safe enclosure by which to view this “Thing” after paying your admission. Keeping it safe from the elements inside the enclosure may just be the only reason this roadside attraction – almost certainly created by Homer Tate - still exists.
Each piece that Tate created, each magnificent oddity complete with a contrived story of its history, was made from natural resources such as fur, bones, pelts, hair, feathers and other parts of animals. Over time, those things decay or are consumed by the desert dwellers feasting on the parts of the shrunken heads and mermaids, eventually decomposing into something even more unrecognizable than the original oddity. Homer Tate’s masterpieces, as they might be called, are quite rare these days–so rare that when Mike Wolfe of the television series American Pickers found some of his works, he made sure they found their way to his expansive collection of historic artifacts.
Perhaps the reason why finding one of Homer Tate’s mummies, shrunken heads or other creature-like things is so rare has to do with his family. Remember, the ones that called his stuff Hoozie Goozies? Well, the reason has been lost to time, but at one point in time, the creator of such curiosities found himself behind bars for some infraction of the law. During his 30-day incarceration, his Mormon family, unhappy with his choice of art, emptied his shop that had been moved from Apache Junction to Van Buren Street in Phoenix of all the amazing and brilliant creations of the unseen and unbelievable! After his release, Homer spent the rest of his years writing poetry and working with the Mormon Church until his death in 1975, never making another oddity again.
At the age of 56 in 1969, Binkley Prince passed away leaving his wife, Janet, alone with the business and “The Thing?” It wasn’t easy making a life alone as a curio shop owner in the middle of nowhere (as it must have felt) in southern Arizona and, when the Bowlin Travel Center offered to purchase the business from Janet, she was more than happy to leave the hilltop location for more modern conveniences in the city of Sierra Vista.
The THING? display in 2019
“The Thing?” remained the focus point of this destination for travelers along Interstate 10 with the iconic yellow billboards, now with the Bowlin’s logo, enticing the traveling public to get out of their cars, purchase some refreshments, and witness “The Mystery of the Desert.” Gas pumps were put in along with the irresistible taste of a Dairy Queen ice cream treat! For years, that is until 2018, folks would stop, use the bathroom facilities, shop for souvenirs, grab an ice cream cone or shake, and wander the back lot of the shop, following big yellow “Big Foot” prints to 3 different metal buildings filled with curiosities of all sorts, eventually leading to the final stop, where, with bated breath, the visitors could peer through the scratched, yet protective Plexiglas and see just what all those signs led you to see!
I won’t give it away here. I encourage you to stop yourself to see it and, if it has been any time at all since you last stopped, you might be surprised to see that things have changed a bit at Bowlin’s Travel Center on exit 322.
It was the billboards – again – that drew us to visit this place another time. For years, we have stopped and spent our dollar to walk through the kitschy displays leading up to the eventual high point of the visit. Unique and artistic, each display, along with the fictitious stories that went along with each, never bored us. We took each step along the Big Foot path and would think back to days gone by when a travel center wasn’t part of one’s journeys – they hadn’t been invented yet. And to the times when novelties of all sorts were what people desired to spend their money on as they traveled the newly built highways of America. Roadside Americana – that’s what it all was about and how it felt each time we visited, toured the museum attractions, and grabbed a pecan log that these centers are famous for.
Now those billboards have a greater presence and are filled with images of Aliens and Dinosaurs. What the what? “The Thing?” is now being advertised, not so much with the question of what it is, but what it may have originated from – and that includes Dinos and Aliens! Yes, you heard that right!
What if? … is the theme of this attraction that re-opened in 2018 to a new audience and a new image and idea on how to sell the one thing that had brought people to Binkley Prince’s curio shops for over 50 years – Homer Tate’s creation that Prince deemed “The Thing?”
Many millions of dollars have gone into this one-of-a-kind exhibit.
With new and amazing technology that neither Binkley Prince or, for that matter, Homer Tate may have ever envisioned, the powers that be at Bowlins Travel Center have created a walk-through exhibit asking the question all through the newly built museum – What If?
Millions, I might guess, many millions of dollars have gone into this one-of-a-kind exhibit filled with questions of What If that, today, draws people from all over the world to stop and see “The Thing? – The Mystery of the Desert” with billboards galore advertising the duel between Aliens and Dinosaurs for the future of Planet Earth and those who dwell upon her surface.
It’s all quite dramatic with loud noises giving the background feel of danger and displays of ancient reptiles on land and in the air, as well as the alien invaders from a far off planet destined to affect the life on this planet and all who will play a part in its existence from cavemen to world leaders through the centuries.
“The Mystery of the Desert” is “the missing link between humans and aliens.”
Conspiracy theories abound as you walk through the exhibits and read the information about each stop along the way – and there’s lots of reading to do by each exhibit telling the story developed by the creators of the possible origins of the safely-enclosed creature known as The Thing? From the time of dinosaurs and possible alien visitation, through to the Wild West, the World Wars, and beyond, this newly recreated roadside attraction claims that, “The best way to hide the truth is in plain sight, at an obscure roadside stop in Arizona.” And, that “The Mystery of the Desert” is “the missing link between humans and aliens.” All said with the caveat of …
What if … ?
Well, what if you stop by, grab an ice cream treat, pick up a souvenir, and pay your $5 admission fee to wander through someone’s imagination-filled museum, and enjoy this 21st century’s Roadside Americana?
What if … you remember the men of old, the men whose journeys through life were not mundane and uninteresting, but instead, filled with the possibilities of entertaining and amusing.
What if … Homer Tate had never taken his art to the macabre and bizarre?
What if … Binkley Prince had continued with his law profession and not opened his curio stand outside of Barstow, California, eventually purchasing the item that this story is talking about?
What if … Bowlin’s Travel Center hadn’t had the vision for today’s modern Roadside Americana?
I’m just saying … it’s all a big question mark in life? What if …?
The Thing?
Exit 322 on Interstate 10
(575) 635-1480
www.bowlinsthething.com
