The Thing!Thomas Binkley Price (1913 - 1969)

Status

Extant

Address

2631 N. Johnson Rd, Dragoon, Arizona, 85602, United States

Built

1965

Visiting Information

The Thing! is located near Texas Canyon in a remote area off the I-10. It is open to visitors daily 7am - 6:30pm. The entrance fee is $5 for adults and $10 for families.

About the Artist/Site

The Thing is a store and museum of strange collected items originally created by Thomas Binkley Prince in 1965. According to documents by Seymour Rosen, The Thing acquired work by Pop Schaffer. (It is unclear if what is photographed here is work by Pop Schaffer.) The original museum was housed in three metal buildings that were open to the elements.

When Prince died in 1969, the Bowlin Travel Centers became the stewards of The Thing. Unfortunately in 2018, Bowlin managers Kit Johnson and Myles Erwin renovated The Thing, and it is now much different from the original created by Prince. The two men say they tried their best to preserve Prince’s original Thing, but while all pieces were documented, some did not make the cut to be displayed in the updated facility. The original exhibit has ephemera tied to Hitler which has been removed or recontextualized by the new owners. The Thing now contains exhibits of battling space aliens, enslaved dinosaurs, and a conspiracy theory wall that links aliens to Stonehenge and the assassination of JFK.

The foundational collection once owned by Price is somewhat incorporated into these new exhibits, but this environment is much changed from its original iteration. 

 

Narrative by Rachel Allison, 2022

 

Sources:

Materials

Collection of paraphernalia and strange items

Map & Site Information

2631 N. Johnson Rd
Dragoon, Arizona, 85602 us
Latitude/Longitude: 32.0809956 / -110.0507179

Nearby Environments

Home on the Range Motel

Bowie, Arizona

Dell Hall

Tucson, Arizona

God's Little Acre

Tucson, Arizona

Mr. Dolores Santa Cruz

Tucson, Arizona

Previous Slide Button Next Slide Button

Post your comment

Comments

No one has commented on this page yet.