Editor's note: The following story was written as part of a series called "Cheap Thrills" for the Albuquerque Journal. The criteria for these "thrills" are 1) a day-trippable circle roughly 150 miles from Albuquerque and 2) fees of no more than $10. Enjoy.
You can earn an official "Certificate of Bravery" for visiting the new American International Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque's Old Town.
During the first eight months of the museum's existence, says proprietor Bob Myers, only two people have balked at the entrance and refused to put themselves within striking distance of the snakes-behind-glass.
Counting babies, there are about two dozen live rattlers -- plus a boa constrictor -- on display at the museum, which is in a former gift shop at 202 San Felipe NW.
Rattlesnake Museum
Location: 202 San Felipe NW, in Old Town Albuquerque. Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sundays 1-6 p.m. Cost: Entrance to shop is free, but to see the snakes costs $1. Features: A collection of live rattlesnakes and other related items plus a gift shop.
Actually, about half of the museum is still a gift shop where you can buy typical Old Town wares like jewelry, pottery and T-shirts.
You can also buy shed rattlesnake fangs for $6.95 and shed rattlesnake skins for $5.95 to $9.95. (Fangs from the Gabon viper --"largest snake fang in the world" -- cost $10.95. Some people like to make them into earrings.)
Myers says that although he has yet to advertise, his museum captures a large number of tourists wandering through Old Town, and word-of-mouth publicity has already attracted 40 school groups to the museum.
There have been no newspaper stories about the American International Rattlesnake Museum prior to the Cheap Thrills column you are now reading!
You don't have to pay admission to gain entrance to the gift shop portion of the museum. But it costs $1 to get into the snaky part, which begins right next to the cash register.
Along both sides of a corridor stretching toward the back of the museum, rattlers reside in glass display cases featuring the decor of their native habitats.
As you move down the corridor, peering into each enclosure, the snakes become aware of your presence -- some greet your arrival with the steady buzz of rattles at work.
The rattling, explains an informative placard, "should actually be a comforting sound because we would then know where the rattlesnake is. Instead, it strikes fear in the minds of many of us."
All rattlesnakes are natives of the Western hemisphere. The ones on display here, coming from as far away as Venezuela, include a canebrake rattlesnake, a northern blacktailed rattlesnake, a massasauga, a western diamondback rattlesnake, a banded rock rattlesnake, a Colorado desert sidewinder (I couldn't see it, but assumed it lay hidden in the sand), a Mojave rattlesnake, a tiger rattlesnake, an Arizona black rattlesnake, a uracoan rattlesnake and a cascabel.
The largest snake at the time of my visit is about 5-1/2 feet long. But Myers expects the arrival of an extremely rare anerythristic Eastern diamondback that is more than 7 feet long. ("Anerythristic" means it lacks red pigment, and is a pale silver-blue.)
Other rarities at the museum include:
* A greenish-colored patternless western diamondback. "So rare there are none in any other zoo anywhere," proclaims the informative placard by its container. "In fact we know of no otherspecimen with this (patternless) condition at all. It's an abnormality comparable to the occurrence of a human being with red hair but no freckles."
* A pale-yellow albino western diamondback: "She may reach a length of over 6 feet and be seen by over one million people in her 30 plus years of life," says the adjacent placard. "Take time to observe this albino rattlesnake -- you may never see another."
If it had been born in the wild this albino rattler probably would have been killed early on by a natural enemy. But like most of the rattlers at this museum, it was zoo-born. This albino can expect to survive despite its complete lack of protective coloration.
The museum also features a portion of Myers' collection of rattlesnake artifacts and some items donated by others. There's a display of snakebite kits, for example. Another display, highlighting the commercial use of rattlesnake imagery, features brand-name bottles of Rattlesnake Beer. On one wall hangs a Revolutionary War version of the American flag bearing the image of a rattlesnake and the slogan: "Don't Tread on Me."
"I've got enough stuff to fill a building 10 times this size," says Myers, a former biology teacher. He hopes his museum will eventually grow in size and prestige to become what he calls one of Albuquerque's "super attractions like the zoo or the Tram."
The facility he dreams of would be a major "conservation and ecology center" covering a much broader range of reptiles and other animals. "For now," Myers says, "I'm using rattlers because they draw a lot of attention."
Education -- "a personal introduction into the life of this so-misunderstood creature" -- is Myers' goal. Some people who enter the museum expect to find "just another roadside snakepit," he says. But at the American International Rattlesnake Museum, the snakes are well cared for -- the city's animal control division conducts inspections to make sure it stays that way.
Although he acknowledges the assistance of "biologists, herpetologists, veterinarians, wildlife conservationists, zoologists, educators, artists, carpenters, painters and electricians" in helping to establish his museum, Myers says the financial risk is all his and the business is "nonprofit, so far."
The Rattlesnake Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Sundays it's open 1-6 p.m. For more information, write to: American International Rattlesnake Museum, 202 San Felipe NW, Albuquerque, 87104, or call 242-6569.
Or drop in to talk to Myers, who can answer your rattlesnake questions.
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You can earn an official "Certificate of Bravery" for visiting the new American International Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque's Old Town.
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