Anybody remember a desert museum near San Diego? - Beyond Tiki

M mbonga Member La Mesa, California Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 556	M mbonga Posted posted on Sun, Mar 5, 2006 5:12 PM On 2006-03-05 16:33, Gigantalope wrote: Some of what you are describing sounds like it might be from Calico, back when the Knott family ran it. I see by the following site that there is such a bottle house in Calico... http://totalescape.com/destin/all_towns/calico.html ...but that's not the building I'm thinking of. Also, Calico is on a special looped side road off of Highway 15, north of the I-10, if I interpret online maps correctly, and the I-10 itself is too far north of the area I remember. The place I remember is one that we passed all the time on the main road, so it had to be nearer to the San Diego - Indio route, which would end at the I-10. I visited Calico in the '80s and that definitely is not the correct area. The last year I saw that museum was in 1973, on a family trip to Arizona, which makes me think it might have been on I-8 itself. I believe the place I remember had only a few bottle windows, not the entire wall. It was also in an isolated spot with no other buildings/competition around it, which strategically made it a prime location for tourists to stop at. Like Desert View Tower, it had been around literally as far back as I could remember, and it must have been in business for at least 15 years. It's hard for me to believe a place that had been around that long and was so unique and attracted so many tourists could so completely disappear from memory and records by now. If I could only find out the name, looking up info about it would be relatively simple. The name was probably something along the lines of "Jake's Desert Museum." I'll look into that pueblo thing you mentioned. Thanks for your suggestions. Of course if I ever do learn the name of that mystery museum, I'll let everybody know. P.S.--If you've ever seen the made-for-TV movie "Gargoyles" (1972), it was very much like that old guy's desert museum in that film. I thought that might even be the same place, at first, but it's not. Also, I'm starting to remember a lot of purple sun-stained glass bottles at that museum, I believe outside of it on the sand, maybe with a cactus garden out in front. [ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-05 17:22 ] [ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-06 18:13 ]

On 2006-03-05 16:33, Gigantalope wrote:
Some of what you are describing sounds like it might be from Calico, back when the
Knott family ran it.

I see by the following site that there is such a bottle house in Calico...
http://totalescape.com/destin/all_towns/calico.html
...but that's not the building I'm thinking of.

Also, Calico is on a special looped side road off of Highway 15, north of the I-10, if I interpret online maps correctly, and the I-10 itself is too far north of the area I remember. The place I remember is one that we passed all the time on the main road, so it had to be nearer to the San Diego - Indio route, which would end at the I-10. I visited Calico in the '80s and that definitely is not the correct area. The last year I saw that museum was in 1973, on a family trip to Arizona, which makes me think it might have been on I-8 itself.

I believe the place I remember had only a few bottle windows, not the entire wall. It was also in an isolated spot with no other buildings/competition around it, which strategically made it a prime location for tourists to stop at. Like Desert View Tower, it had been around literally as far back as I could remember, and it must have been in business for at least 15 years. It's hard for me to believe a place that had been around that long and was so unique and attracted so many tourists could so completely disappear from memory and records by now. If I could only find out the name, looking up info about it would be relatively simple. The name was probably something along the lines of "Jake's Desert Museum."

I'll look into that pueblo thing you mentioned. Thanks for your suggestions. Of course if I ever do learn the name of that mystery museum, I'll let everybody know.

P.S.--If you've ever seen the made-for-TV movie "Gargoyles" (1972), it was very much like that old guy's desert museum in that film. I thought that might even be the same place, at first, but it's not. Also, I'm starting to remember a lot of purple sun-stained glass bottles at that museum, I believe outside of it on the sand, maybe with a cactus garden out in front.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-05 17:22 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-06 18:13 ]

Post #219039 by mbonga on Sun, Mar 5, 2006 5:12 PM