2016 Yuma Trip: Dobson Museum Tour

On Thursday, Janice and I had a reservation to visit the Dobson Museum in Tacna, AZ, about 25 miles from our neighborhood in the Foothills. Windy Dobson is the owner/docent who spent more than 3 hours giving a personal tour of the collection she and her husband had amassed over 40 years. The husband passed away in 2001 but Windy and her children still attend auctions and dig in ghost town garbage dumps. Outside, there were 55 tractors, old trucks, buses, Oskosh motors in a variety of sizes, a book mobile, antique travel trailer, a 1920s gas station and old equipment covering 10 acres. The museum sat on a mesa with a spectacular 180* view of mountains and agricultural valley. We could have been there another couple of hours but the outside temp was creeping way into the 80s. We had all been invited to a BBQ dinner with other snowbirds who had been playing golf with Sonny and Jim.

The rain gauge is quite empty.

Yard ornament, one of many items.

More yard ornaments plus a view of the valley.

The blue section of Windy's bottle collection. She said she didn't buy any of these. She dug them all.

The full bottle collection in the yard. Not sure how often
she had to blow the sand away after a storm.

The front yard didn't need mowing. These are tools and implements. The sign says to keep children out of the yard.
It's a temping place to play.

The corner of Mesquite Street. The family has scrounged the county looking for small salvageable buildings. They have moved them to the museum and created a school house, the single teacher's residence, a barber/dentist, shop, a blacksmith shop, a 1920s home, tack room and a wash room. All had
period antiques. The barber was also the dentist. The
tooth drill was run by pumping a pedal.

Tractor rows.

A feedlot in town used railroad ties for corral
posts. The square parts were in the ground. The
unusual shape of the top half was caused
by cattle licking the post. Apparently, creosote
was tasty. The rail road spikes made hooks.

Another view of Mesquite Street

I think this was a 50s model Airstream.

There was a tiny toilet in the bedroom.

Looking towards the sleeping area. Potty is in a closet
to the right.

Camp trailer set for breakfast complete with 50s dishes.

Windy lives in her museum. She talked about many of
her pieces on display. These are mini heaters for
curling irons.

The condom exhibit is most unusual I had
not seen one in any museum but there are
books written about them. They were first used
in the Civil War and were kept in small metal
tins.

This child's shoe has plastic windows in the
toes. That was so Moms could see how much
room their child had in the toe for
growth.

There tiny baskets are created by Native Americans
using the hair in horse tails.

Tiny horse hair bowls and one with a cover.

The office had many examples of typewriters.
This unusual one has upper case letters on the top
rows and lower case in the bottom 3 rows instead
of a shift key.

Crocks were used for pickles, salting fish, and food storage. This one is from Canada, showing a beaver.

Windy had collected 8 "easy chairs". They have
adjustable back positions using rods. The piano
was in beautiful condition complete with original
ivory keys. The little stove was a kerosene 2
burner probably used in summer kitchens.

The coffee table was dedicated to butter making tools.
These are molds and paddles. There are 3 kinds of
salt cellars. One has a round bottom, another
has a lip. These features made it easier to
removed the salt.