The Thing

Dragoon, Arizona

The huge billboards tantalize you for hundreds of miles as you drive along the freeway. "THE THING?" -- the ever-present question mark emphasizes the mystery. With all the buildup, you'd think "The Thing" is the Secret of the Ages! How can you resist paying a mere dollar to learn such a valuable secret? So you pull off the freeway, enter the gift shop, fork over the cash, and are granted entrance...

You enter though an impressively fortified door. But to get to "The Thing," first you must pass through several rooms which make up a decidedly odd and somewhat disturbing museum...
There are several dusty old cars of dubious authenticity...
...bizarre wood carvings....
...and this charming little torture chamber.
Torture torso ... how interesting!
Finally you come to the somewhat anticlimactic "Thing" itself. There inside a glass-covered coffin is what appears to be the mummified body of a woman.
You peer closely, trying to tell if it is real; the exposed rib and leg bones almost convince you. There's even a mummy baby!

Maybe you've been "had," you think as you exit through the one-way turnstile. You're not quite sure what you've seen, but you have seen "The Thing"!

Directions: South side of Interstate 10 at Exit 322, 60 miles east of Tucson (You shouldn't have any trouble finding it!).

Last visited: October 2007.

Standard disclaimer: Sites are described for entertainment purposes only, as they were at the time of my last visit. I can not vouch for the current condition of the site or its accessibility.