Tinkertown Museum

The Tinkertown Museum[1] is a folk art museum in Sandia Park, New Mexico. The museum was founded by artist Ross Ward, and feature's Ward's hand-carved miniature Old West town (the eponymous Tinkertown), as well as a hand-carved circus, a collection of antique wedding cake toppers, tools, and other oddities, Ward's Jeep decorated in bottle caps and pennies, and a 35 foot antique sailboat, Theodora R, which circumnavigated the world from 1981 to 1991, piloted by Fritz Damler. [2][3][4] Tinkertown is prominently featured in a scene from the film, Palmer's Pick-Up (1999).

History and contents

Ward began carving the figures within the museum in 1962, but it was originally intended as a private hobby which was occasionally displayed at fairs and carnivals, and did not open to the public until public interest led Ward to open Tinkertown Museum in 1983.[5] Ward built much of the museum building himself, out of more than 50,000 glass bottles held together by concrete.[6] The museum contains several coin-operated machines, including Esmeralda the Fortune Teller and Otto the One Man Band.

Ward, a traveling show painter, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in February 1998, and began converting his Jeep Cherokee into an art piece covered in pennies and bottle caps once it became unsafe for him to drive. The Jeep is now on display at the museum. Ward passed away from Alzheimer's disease on November 13, 2002 at the age of 62.

Ward was also a painter and sculptor, and his works are on display in Tinkertown, as well as elsewhere. His workshop is recreated in the museum.

References
  1. "Tinkertown | Sandia Park, NM 87047". www.newmexico.org. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  2. "Time for Tinkertown". www.abqjournal.com. Associated Press.
  3. Conde, Clarke. "Art Magnified: The Tinker of Tinkertown: The Life and Art of Ross Ward". alibi.
  4. Writer, Kathaleen Roberts | Journal Staff. "A legacy of creativity: Book tells the story of the life and art of Tinkertown's Ross Ward". www.abqjournal.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "Our Story". Tinkertown Museum. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  6. Eisenberg, Paul (2015-03-26). "America's Best Little-Known Museums". Fox News. Retrieved 2023-07-06.

35°10′9″N 106°22′4″W


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