“The Thing” in Dragoon, Arizona? It’s a dead thing.
First, Tombstones in Tombstone and now a Dead Thing in Dragoon.
(SPOILER ALERT: If you plan to see “The Thing?”, as advertised on the many signs along Highway 10 in Arizona, don’t read any further. They make an effort to keep The Thing? a secret until you get inside the third and last building in the little gas station/museum. However, photos of it are widely published on the internet, and the employee I spoke with said it was ok to write this article and include my photos. It’s totally worth the $1 entrance fee!)
If you’ve ever driven around southeastern Arizona, you’ve seen one of the 247 signs advertising “The Thing?”.
The mysterious Thing.
Every mile or so on I-10 there’s a sign:
“The Thing? What is it?”
“Mystery of the desert”
“Don’t miss The Thing?”
“You’re only 16 miles from The Thing?”
“See The Thing?”
247 signs. TWO-HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN signs. In an often barren landscape with little else to look at you are their captive audience.
OK, FINE. I’ll see the damn Thing!
The suspenseful teasing doesn’t end when you hand over your $1 for the entry fee. Three buildings comprise the museum of mismatched antiques and odd collectibles that line the way to The Thing.
Here are a couple of the things you’ll see on the way to The Thing…
A really old gun. Probably not good for zombies.
More old guns. Also not good for killing zombies. Or Bugzilla.
This next display was cool and quirky. There are dead tarantulas in a display with little dead birds. I want these…
Zombie Tarantulas. I'm going to send Bugzilla to these guys when I catch him.
Zombie Tarantula eating a bird. I'd still put my money on Bugzilla.
Unlike Bugzilla, whom I suspect is still alive and well and laughing at me from under the bed, The Thing is dead. Loooong dead. It’s a bit sad when you realize what it is. (photo alert)
The Thing in Dragoon, Arizona is actually two dead bodies.
The hat is for "modesty". Yes, I asked. Wouldn't you? No? Oh.
That’s The Thing. Or a zombie. It’s a close call.
The story goes a traveling side show…
Huh. It just occurred to me I might be a traveling side show of one.
But I digress.
A traveling side show had three of these mummies and sold them to the owners of the shop around the 1950’s.
ROFL! once upon a different life I took a road trip that went HORRIBLY wrong. One of the high points of the trip was THE THING. Fantastic! And, much like you, I had to stop just to make the signs quit the nagging!
I would have expected it to be a “Thing” like in the “Thing” movies, all mutated and twisted up and shit. I’d pay a dollar to see that… Actually, I’d pay a dollar just to lay on the giant chunk of ice that the “Thing” sprang from, especially if I’d just been driving around the Arizona desert.
What a bizarre tourist attraction!