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 story
Ross Ward spent four decades doing what most people only threaten to do when they are bored: he built his own world. Tucked off Sandia Crest Road along the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, Tinkertown started as a traveling show of Ward's hand-carved miniature figures before calcifying into a sprawling 22-room labyrinth constructed out of mortar and more than 50,000 recycled glass bottles.
Inside, you walk through a physical record of one man's relentless carving habit. The complex houses an entire animated circus, a meticulously detailed miniature Wild West town, and mechanical coin-operated figures like Otto the One-Man-Band and Esmeralda the fortune-teller. Parked right in the middle of the desert complex is a 35-foot wooden sailboat that actually circumnavigated the globe from 1982 to 1991 before landing here. Stenciled onto wooden beams throughout the property, Ward left behind a quiet, hand-painted reminder of his work ethic: "I did all this while you were watching TV."
What it's like
You will step out of the high-desert sun into dim, winding passageways where amber and green light filters through thousands of bottle bases set into the walls. Bring a heavy roll of quarters—the mechanical dioramas, circus acts, and Otto require coins to gear up and move. The pathways are tight and winding, so expect to go single-file through the bottle walls while hunting for Ward's hand-carved proverbs hidden near the ceilings.
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.
Pair it with
- Old Coal Mine Museum — Continue north along the Turquoise Trail to Madrid to trade Ward's handmade miniatures for three acres of raw, unrestored coal mining history.
- Casa Grande Trading Post — Keep winding north toward Cerrillos for a 28-room adobe hacienda holding another family-run collection of hand-built mining dioramas and regional rocks.
- Encaustic Art Institute — Contrast Ward's wood and bottle folk art with a stop in Cerrillos to view hundreds of contemporary works made from molten beeswax.
Good to know
Where is Tinkertown located?
It sits at 121 Sandia Crest Road in Sandia Park, New Mexico, right off the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
What do I need to bring with you?
Quarters. While the structures and carving are built into the walk-through, you need coins to activate Otto the One-Man-Band, Esmeralda, and the animated circus dioramas.
Is there really a full-sized sailboat inside?
Yes. A 35-foot sailboat that completed a 10-year circumnavigation of the globe between 1982 and 1991 is permanently docked inside the museum grounds.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · newmexicomagazine.org
last checked: 2026-07-20