Tinkertown and Burger Boy

April 18, 2021

While I didn’t get a hike in today, I still went back up to the area where I hiked yesterday to go back to one of the kitschiest museums you’d ever hope to visit: Tinkertown.

A Brief History of Tinkertown

While Tinkertown has its own ‘About‘ page that dives a little more into the history of Tinkertown, the short version is Tinkertown was born from the art of artist (and tinkerer) Ross Ward.

Ross began carving small figures in junior high school, small circus figures that are currently on display at the museum. He drew, painted and carved, many times for travelling circuses and carnivals, for over 30 years.

In 1998, Ross was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and sadly passed away in 2002.

His family keeps his spirit alive by maintaining Tinkertown museum, a living testimonial to his spirit of creativity, adventure and the old west.

“I did this all while you were watching TV.”

Ross Ward

The Museum

Today, the 22 room museum that Ross built himself of empty glass bottles sits just off Highway 14, the Turquoise Trail, in Sandia Park. If you fly by on Sandia Crest Road, you might mistake it for a junkyard, but upon closer inspection, you’ll see that it’s fashioned after old store fronts of the old west, wood plank buildings and glass bottle walls with several pieces of Ross’s art decorating the front yard.

A dilapidated lean-to covers an old west chuck wagon in front a reproduction of an old west harness shop. Off to one side sits his “Art Car”, a Jeep Cherokee painted, covered in pennies (he was trying to turn it into a Lincoln… get it?), and plastered in action figures, dolls and stickers.

Then, there’s the entrance to the museum.

Today’s Visit

Tinkertown is open seasonally from April 1 to October 31 every year… except 2020. Like many other small businesses, the coronavirus pandemic prevented the museum from opening to visitors. As the spread has died and a vaccine is now widely available, restrictions have loosened to the point where they were allowed to open to a limited number of visitors. They officially reopened for the first time since the fall of 2019 on Friday, April 16. They implemented a time-ticketed system for this year so I bought my ticket for 10:00 as soon as I got home from my hike yesterday.

I briefly entertained the idea of swinging by Roots Farm Cafe for a breakfast burrito on my way out but didn’t quite allow for enough time for that.

I bypassed the interstate and took old Route 66 (Central Blvd) out of Albuquerque, through Tijeras, and Cedar Crest to Sandia Park. I was a little early so I passed the museum and went up to the picnic grounds I visited yesterday to use the vault toilet. The campground had a healthy dusting of snow from yesterday. It was dead silent there so I sat for a few moments to take it in.

I got back to the museum with just about 5 minutes to spare. Just outside the entrance to the gift shop, there was a podium set up with a sign saying to check in there. There was no one there though, so I started to head into the gift shop where I was greeted by an employee just coming out. We chatted for a brief moment before she scanned my ticket and sent me on my way.

The first thing you encounter is Rusty Wyer and the Turquoise Trail Riders, a group of carved characters that’ll play you a little ditty for the low, low cost of a quarter.

You continue on through a VERY low doorway (like, I REALLY have to stoop down to get through it) into the first of a maze of hallways. There’s an old timey fortune telling machine where for another quarter, you can have your fortune told by Grandmother Esmeralda.

Mine today was rather apt for my situation:

“A trip around the world is in store for you

With it a great deal of happiness too.

You will have unlimited money

And life for you will be very sunny.”

Grandma Esmeralda

I’ll take it!

Down the next hall, you see a long old west street. Buildings open to show scenes of usually humorous nature taking place before you. In this scene, you can find a general store, a barber shop, a… ahem… “house of negotiated affection”, and a blacksmith’s shop, among others. These scenes are all filled with the little wooden figure Ross carved throughout his life. On the wall just below the windows are buttons you can press to animate the figures. Horses spin, the barber shaves his client, the blacksmith swings his hammer.

The scenes are filled with so many small details, it’s impossible to take them all in on your first visit. As many times as I’ve been to Tinkertown, I always catch something I didn’t catch before.

The halls meander through more scenes including a huge circus scene, a small midwestern town scene, and a Heaven vs. Hell scene (which is always my favorite.)

The Boat

As you pass through a corridor between two buildings, there’s a small detour to a shed where a 35 foot wooden boat called the Theodora R is dry docked. After walking through a romanticized vision of the old west, this boat sitting in the middle of the museum is quite jarring. It turns out, the boat, built in 1936, was used by Fritz Damler to sail around the world over the course of ten years. More than fitting in to the old west aesthetic, the boat represents the spirit of adventure and getting out and seeing the world while you can.

Unfortunately, that exhibit does very little to interest me so I didn’t take any pictures of it.

Toys and Dolls

After passing by a small model of a water wheel in a miniature grotto, you’ll enter an area dedicated to toys and dolls from different eras and cultures. A huge dollhouse built by Ross is on full display before you reach Otto, the Automatic One Man Band. For, you guessed it, one quarter, you can be treated to another song.

As you turn the corner, you’re greeted with more dolls and toys from Ross’s collections in his curation of the Tinkertown Museum.

Scattered throughout the museum are little signs that talk about things like adventure, doing what you love and living your best life. I found a couple of these signs very directed toward me. Going through what I’m going through right now, I needed to hear things like “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” or “The past does not equal the future.”

I guess that’s why I love Tinkertown so much. Sure, it’s a quirky little mish-mash of creativity and nostalgia, but it keeps alive the spirit of adventure and love of life.

I ended my visit to Tinkertown with a stroll through the gift shop, snagging a couple of doodads for my souvenir wall.

Burger Boy

I called in my order to Burger Boy then left Tinkertown and headed back down Sandia Crest Road to Highway 14 then down to the burger joint.

Now, on the Burger Boy website, and on signs plastered ad nauseum on the restaurant itself, indoor dining is closed, and they are only open for takeout orders. They do have a patio, so I asked if I was allowed to eat on the patio since the dining room was closed. They told me then that the dining room was in fact open. Good thing because it was (literally) freezing in Cedar Crest.

I ordered a green chile cheeseburger sans tomatoes, fries and a root beer. They don’t have fountain drinks so I wound up with a can of A&W. The total was $9.99.

My food was delivered to my table and to be frank, I was disappointed in the portion of fries I was given. The burger looked good, it was still nice and warm so obviously fresh.

As I picked up the burger, juices dripped from it onto the paper lining the boat. I took a bite and… oh. Oh my. Oh my word. This burger was delicious! Cooked just right, seasoned perfectly, nice and juicy, just the right amount of condiments, but… where’s the green chile? I lifted the bun, and sure enough, there was some green chile on the burger, I just didn’t taste it. Eh, maybe I missed it with my first bite. Took another… no, still not tasting it. I got through just about half of the burger before I tasted that smoky, almost spicy goodness of green chile.

The fries were those perfectly twice fried consistency I love so much, reminiscent of the fries I had in Carlsbad. I’m hoping the portion size is due to the difficulties they’re experiencing due to COVID. This is definitely a place I will visit again. And while they’re not on the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, they sure deserve to be!

The End

I took the same route home I took to get out to Cedar Crest, old route 66 to Central back to the base. Taking that route made me want to drive the entirety of Route 66. But that’s a bucket list thing. I’m talking WAAAAY down the road.

In all, I had a very nice time today. I always love visiting Tinkertown, and my second trip to Burger Boy was just as fantastic as I was hoping it’d be. I look forward to spending more time in that area, especially knowing now that it’s so close.

I have my planned trip with Alan next weekend, but nothing else planned until or after that. Seeing as how I’ll be moving two weeks after that outing, I’ll likely be busy packing and making arrangements for that, but hopefully I can sneak in a hike or something before the move.

I will be moving on May 7, and will be taking the following week off of work, ideally to unpack and get settled in the new place. Frankly, I don’t think I’ll need that much time; I don’t have a whole lot of stuff, so perhaps I can do some things during my time off.

Of course, check my Photo Diary for more photos from today’s outing.

so tell me, have you ever been to Tinkertown? What did you think? Do you love it as much as I do? Drop a comment and let me know!

And until next time, I appreciate you, as always!

-Phil