Entry No. 1 — the Santa Fe file — filed under: weird museum

Tinkertown Museum

A 22-room museum artist Ross Ward built over 40 years, its walls made from more than 50,000 embedded glass bottles, housing his hand-carved miniature Wild West town and an animated circus, Otto the One-Man-Band, the fortune-teller Esmeralda, and a 35-foot sailboat that actually circumnavigated the globe from 1982-1991.

The move: Feed quarters into the coin-operated dioramas together and hunt through the bottle-wall passages for Ward's hand-painted motto etched around the property: "I did all this while you were watching TV."

📍 Sandia Park (East Mountains)
💸 $$
⚡ Up for anything
🌗 Indoors

Where: 121 Sandia Crest Road, Sandia Park, NM 87047

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.

#weird museum #folk art #outsider art #roadside attraction #miniatures

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · newmexicomagazine.org

last checked: 2026-07-20