Tucumcari Historical Museum

416 South Adams Street

Tucumcari, NM 88401

575-461-4201

This historical museum, housed in the original 1903 schoolhouse, showcases items ranging from 12,000 B.C. Indian artifacts to a 1926 Chevrolet fire truck.

The Tucumcari Museum is a museum for regular folks. This museum is different. It is like one giant attic of old stuff. There is stuff piled on top of stuff - under stuff - between stuff - stuffed inside of stuff - and overstuffed stuff. There are two stories of stuff, a basement with stuff, and outbuildings overflowing with stuff. And what constitutes a museum exhibit? Here at the Tucumcari Museum, about anything goes. Prized bowling balls, a collection of used cowboy boots, a bucket of particularly colorful cow-patties, piles of family scrapbooks, bootleg liquor stills, a roulette wheel from one of the old gambling halls, you name it. The collection is like buried treasure. There is an excellent chance you can dig through stuff and find something that the rest of the world didn't even know existed.

Duane Moore (pictured above right), a museum board member at the time of our trip, gave us a wonderful tour of the museum.  Below are some pictures we took in and around the museum.