From Bottles to Plows-
Exploring the Dobson Museum of Yuma, AZ  (Please click on photos to enlarge)

  Museums are about collecting. The amazing thing about collecting, is each piece collected has more than one story about it--the history of the piece--and then the story about how the collector acquired the piece. When you realize this, a visit to the Dobson Museum in Tacna, Arizona, just outside of Yuma, is truly extraordinary.

  For more than 35 years, Windy and her late husband 'Ace', collected bottles of all types (including opium bottles) from dumps, homesteads, ghost towns, old mines and railroad camps. They collected farm implements: typewriters and office equipment'/ rare books; kitchen utensils; vintage clothing; tools; cotton gins and water pumps; furniture; locks and keys; tractors and engines and just about everything else--right down to whiskey jugs.

   The collections eventually ended up in their own museum, and then into their own town--complete with a working display of a gas station, blacksmith shop. school house with a teachers cottage, barber shop, laundry room, general store--and it seems to keep growing. It is a fantastic place through which to stroll. History comes alive as Windy related the story and the use of each item (she learned about a lot of them from old Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs) and her stories about the acquisition. moving and restoration of each building.

  The Dobson Museum is open by appointment only and runs on donations. It is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. For more details or to arrange a tour, please call (928) 785-4013. It is a great place for a family to reconnect with early American life, history buffs to wander through, or as a tour for schools and other groups.