We slept soundly last night, better than the last couple of nights. Not sure why but it felt great. Today we want to visit a couple of the museums located here in Tucumcari.
It’s evident from the local architecture, that the village was in its heyday during the mid 50s – 60s when Route 66 was the main route you traveled from Chicago to the West Coast. Route 66 was the first major highway to traverse the country starting in 1926 and continuing many years until the advent of the Interstate Highway systems. The traffic on Route 66 fueled the local economies with tourism, shopping, gas, motels and more. The road still exists in some areas where you can slow down, enjoy the local scenery, and here about local lore in these small, quaint villages. Many, such as Tucumcari, have a lot of character, and we hope it and other small towns along Route 66, can find a way to continue to welcome visitors for many years to come.
Many of the buildings and stores in Tucumcari have engaged local artists to paint unique murals to their facilities, adding a colorful, unique, and uplifting theme to the community. We decided to make the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum our first stop. Upon entering the building, we were greeted by the curator, who shared some information about unique museum. She told us that many of the rocks and bones on display were found in this area, but there are some are various parts of the world. The local college has a department that makes bronzes of the bones found here, an exacting task that can take up to 40 hours for one small bone. By bronzing the bones, many of the exhibits can be touched and are exact replicas of the original.
The curator also told us how Tucumcari got its name from a local legend. Hundreds of years ago, two Native American tribes lived in the area and one of the Chiefs wanted his daughter ‘Cari’ to marry another Chiefs son, but Cari was in love with another tribesman, ‘Tucum’. When her father tried to force her marriage to another, Cari and Tucum climbed to the top of the Mesa and jumped off. Her father upon finding out, cried out for ‘Tucum’ ‘Cari’ , lamenting over their deaths.
We also visited the Railroad Museum which has some interesting artifacts but no trains to tour. Several people we spoke with recommended “Dels” as the place to get a good meal. From the outside it was non-descript, but the food was absolutely amazing. Ron had a fantastic hamburger and fries, I opted for a chicken breast with a raspberry jalapeno sauce, roasted veggies, and a baked potato. The service was great too and we highly recommend Del’s to anyone traveling through this unique village.
New Mexico legalized recreational Marijuana last year and there must be at least 10 dispensaries in this town of about 6,000 people! Possibly it will generate some economic development for the community!
We plan to leave early in the morning around 7:30 to head east to Oklahoma. Winds are going to start picking up which we hope to avoid. One of the locals told us that home insurance in this area won’t cover roof damage because it’s always windy here. Just last week they had winds clocking 80mph.
Tomorrow we will be in Oklahoma – a new state and planning to stay at our first Harvest Host site. We enjoyed our stay at Blaze-in-Saddles and visiting Tucumcari, New Mexico!
2025 Airstream Travels 