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Visitors from all over the world have come to Tinkertown Museum in Sandia Park. The tourist destination opened for the season on March 30 for its 30th season. (Rory Mcclannahan/telegraph)
Tinkertown Museum, located on the road to Sandia Crest, has been enthralling kids and adults alike for the past 30 years.
The brainchild of artist Ross Ward, Tinkertown opened in 1983 to show off Ward’s electic collection of self-carved figures arranged conveniently into several dioramas. Ward died in 2002, but his spirit lives on in a miniature Old West Town, Boot Hill and for anyone who loves the circus, it’s there as well.
But that isn’t all to discover. Not only are there old carnival machines that can tell you your fortune, visitors get a chance to see some of the signs Ward painted over the years and they can marvel at the walls made from old bottles. Carla Ward, Ross Ward’s widow, says there are about 55,000 bottles in Tinkertown’s walls. And quite a few of them contain messages written by visitors from around the world.
Tinkertown opened for its 30th season last Saturday, but Ward opened up when some folks came by the day before.
“You hate to turn people away,” she said.
It turned out to be fortunate, she said, because one of those visitors was from Iceland — a first for the museum.
Tinkertown is open daily from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. through Oct. 31. Admission for adults is $3.50, seniors is $3, children ages 4 to 16 is $1, and children under 4 are free. To discover more about Tinkertown Museum go online to www.tinkertown. com.
