Founded in 1937 by William Shirley Fulton, the Amerind Museum houses a spectacular collection. It includes prehistoric items from archaeological excavations in the Americas. There are also more recent items from Native cultures since the time of contact with the first Europeans.
Mr. Fulton had an amazing collection that he has put on display here.
This is a phenomenal museum collection and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing it. This is the first room we entered. Again, there were no picture taking allowed, so these pictures are from the web resulting in them being a bit less than sharp.
Don actively started to collect Indian pottery from the southwest many years ago. Here we saw a wonderful collection of very early pottery which caused Don to indulge in some heavy duty coveting.
I couldn’t blame him. There was some wonderful works displayed there.
Then there was the basketry….
…and jewelry. Being a maker of pine needle baskets myself, now it was my turn to be covetous…and of course beautiful jewelry is always to be appreciated.
Next door was an art gallery, with again, very impressive paintings that Mr. Fulton had collected and put on display here.
Our next stop was at Gammon’s Gulch. This place is about 15 miles north of Benson in the middle of the desert and very much off the beaten trail.
Gammon’s Gulch is an old time movie set filled with lots and lots of genuine antiques. Numerous movies have been done here with three more scheduled in the upcoming months.
Walking in, we were met with a hearty hand shake by Jay Gammons, owner, operator and story-teller extraordinaire. Mr. Gammons is, we guessed, somewhere between 70 and 80 and at whatever age, still packed with lots of energy…and with no shortage of stories at any point in time.
Although he built this place from scratch, there are lots of “old” buildings ready for the movie makers…
…including the gallows next to the church, just for convenience sake, I guess.
Inside the buildings there was no end to the genuine antiques that they held.
Of course there was a jail…
…and the view outside the jail window was a grim reminder of where one might end up after spending a short time as a guest of the “establishment.”
Jay took a short break while we looked around at the mining area on a hill right behind the town. (Jay said he hates cowboy boots and the ones he was wearing were hurting his feet.)
As we finished walking through the mining area we could hear banjo music…
We found Jay on the porch of the saloon, picking away (with a fair amount of expertise) on his banjo.
Inside the bar he played a mean honky-tonk tune on an old out-of-tune piano.
The saloon, in addition to the elk and the old cash register, is a large room with tables where people can bring a picnic lunch and spend time there. We didn’t have lunch but enjoyed Jay’s endless stories about all the actors he has worked with, those he liked and those he didn’t.
Jay has a number of old cars and trucks on the property, most of which he says actually will run. Of course he had stories about all of them.
Don could have stayed all day listening to the stories and telling his own. I dragged him out of there after a couple hours.
Gammon’s Gulch is a gem in the desert, and Jay is a true character and one not to be missed.
Next stop is Tombstone and a Donkey Rescue. (Talk about off the beaten trail…)
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