Has Water Monster’s Daughter Fallen From Grace?

May 2, 2008

An article in the Charleston Daily Mail hints at current dissatisfaction with one of West Virginia’s more enigmatic attractions, “Water Monster’s Daughter” — a big rock covered with a mysterious carving, sometimes described as a deformed girl. Was it scratched by Indian shamans in the 1830s, or bored teenagers in the 1970s? The article claims that the rock “is in danger of deteriorating” and “once was a tourist attraction,” suggesting that the inscrutable boulder has fallen from favor.

The people of West Virginia need to take a time-out with their rock. Once you have a famous boulder that you can promote, you’re set; just look at crowd-pleasers such as Plymouth Rock — or even Tufa Rock. Don’t be so quick to disparage Water Monster’s Daughter, West Virginia. A rock with a name like that should have a catalog of branded souvenirs and a laser light show, not the back of your hand.

Sections: Attraction News

Bare-Bones Effort For Big Gator

April 29, 2008

A story in the Florida Times-Union details the ongoing efforts to preserve Oscar, the largest-known alligator in Georgia. When Oscar died in Okefenokee Swamp last year, Park officials found to their dismay that they did not have the budget to stuff him. Instead, Oscar’s body was left outside to be eaten by insects. His inedible remains are now slowly being reassembled by a local college professor, working from a 1915 anatomy book.

Oscar’s bones will be encased a clear plastic display shaped like an alligator, allowing a good view of the ancient shotgun pellets that are still embedded in his skull. Oscar’s stomach contents — which will be displayed next to his bones — reveal that he had eaten part of a flagpole and at least one pet dog.

The tenacity of the Okefenokee folks is a fitting tribute to their scaly, long-lived lizard pal. One hopes that similar efforts will be undertaken by the people of Ohio, if they ever discover a carcass of one of their Frog People.

Sections: Attraction News

DIY Death Car Possible for Bonnie and Clyde

April 27, 2008

The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, Louisiana, has lost its Bonnie and Clyde “death car” that was shot up in the 1967 Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway movie. Owner Ken Holmes leased the car to the not-yet-open National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, DC, where it will be an attraction for years to come.

“We literally built the museum around the car,” said NMCP chief operating officer Janine Vaccarello, explaining that the Museum had to knock out a wall and hoist the car in with a crane. “It’s not going anywhere,” she said. Ken Holmes recounted the deal for us: ” I kept telling them no and no and no and their offer kept going up and up and up. I just had to do it. It’s making more money for us up there than it would be sitting in our museum.”

Holmes said that the space formerly occupied by the car in the Gibsland museum would be filled with new exhibits such as the brooch that Bonnie was wearing when she was killed. But he recognizes that a death car is an important exhibit, and told us that he was pursuing several options to replace it:

• The man who owns the fake Bonnie and Clyde death car formerly exhibited at the Tragedy in U.S. History Museum wants to sell it, but Holmes is leery. “He’s had it in his barn ever since he bought it, so it’s even in worse shape than it was before.”
• Holmes has found another fake death car that does interest him (there are, by his estimate, seven fake Bonnie and Clyde death cars floating around). This one was “put together right next to the real one,” making it an especially good copy. But it has no engine, which would make it useless for the annual Bonnie and Clyde massacre recreation held every year at the Gibsland massacre site.
• The most intriguing option available to Holmes is a DIY death car. He is thinking of buying a 1934 Ford, “taking it out to the death site, and letting people line up and shoot holes back in it. Do it as a fundraiser. I probably could get permission from the sheriff.”
• A fourth option, buying the REAL Bonnie and Clyde death car, is beyond Holmes’ budget. It’s currently on display at the Primm Valley Resort Casino in Nevada, and even the National Museum of Crime and Punishment — which has very deep pockets — couldn’t pry it loose. “And it’s pretty beat up,” added Janine Vaccarello.

In other news, the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum still has for sale a few swatches of Clyde Barrow’s death pants. Ken Holmes notes, however, that “we’re runnin’ low.”

Sections: Attraction News

“Stone Face” Could Become Glass Face

April 27, 2008

May 2 is the fifth anniversary of the collapse of “Old Man of the Mountain,” New Hampshire’s official state symbol, also known as the “Great Stone Face.” The Franconia Notch rock formation self-destructed during a foggy night in 2003, and no one noticed that it was gone until the next day.

As if that memory weren’t bad enough, the Concord Monitor reports that an effort to recreate the Face using rock slabs has failed for a lack of money. But the same editorial, as an aside, mentions that a New Jersey artist wants to re-build the Old Man out of glass. Tourists would be able to “walk into his hollow head and peer over Franconia Notch to the mountains beyond as if through his eyes.”

Sounds good to us, after factoring in the risks of combining glass with natural beauty. But the editorial dismisses the big Glass Face as “a testament to what man, not nature, can do.”

The Concord Monitor wants the Old Man’s cliff to stay just the way that it is now — as a pile of rocks that no one would drive out of their way to see. Perhaps the artist should propose building his Glass Face with a giant set of glass spectacles, thereby correcting the shortsightedness of some of the opinion-makers of New Hampshire.

Sections: Attraction News

Bones Bandar Subject of “Shelf Life”

April 26, 2008

Filmmaker Don Bernier (who we first met when he created 2004’s In a Nutshell, about the Nut Lady) has a new short video documentary — Shelf Life — featuring Raymond “Bones” Bandar, who has collected 7,000 skulls, mostly marine mammals. Retired high school teacher Bandar has packed his San Francisco home with specimens. According to Don: “His wife of 50 years, artist Alkmene Bandar, has only one rule: no skulls in the bedroom.” Shelf Life premieres at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival on April 27, with another showing on April 30, 2008.

You can watch a short Quicktime clip from the video and find info on upcoming screenings.

Sections: Video

Elvis Haircut Site To Be Preserved

April 25, 2008

The Fort Smith Times Record reports that the reception center at Arkansas’s now-closed Fort Chaffee has been spared. More than just another anonymous base building, #803 was the site where Elvis Presley had his hair cut when he joined the Army in March 1958. The 50th anniversary of this event emboldened local historians to have the land surrounding the building rezoned from industrial to commercial, thereby sparing it from certain destruction.

A second article in the same paper reveals that the widow of the barber who cut Elvis’s hair still has the clippers that were used, and that another barber has the chair. Building #803 is expected to be restored within a quick six weeks, although the local group will “have to be cautious of how it markets the reception center because Elvis Presley Enterprises owns all rights to the Elvis name and image.”

Sections: Attraction News

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