Ralph Edwards Room and Wax Geronimo

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Ralph Edwards (1913-2005) was the host of a popular radio (and later TV) quiz show named Truth or Consequences. As a joke, he announced that he would broadcast the show from the first town in America to name itself after the program. To his surprise, the town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, officially changed its name to Truth or Consequences on March 31, 1950. Edwards dutifully travelled to Truth or Consequences to broadcast one episode of the show -- and liked it so much that he returned every year for the next 50 years, in what became an annual festival.

The Geronimo Springs Museum has set aside a room devoted to Ralph Edwards, the show, and the festival, including a photo wall of the celebrities who've attended (Wayne Newton, Peter Graves, Jim White and his Trained Zebra, etc.). The museum has an extensive display of indigenous pottery, several large framed displays of artfully arranged arrowheads, and a wax dummy of its namesake, Geronimo, as well as an entire 19th century miner's cabin found in the nearby Black Range Mountains, disassembled, and moved here.

But the star exhibit will always be Ralph.