Day 7 – Cottonwood, AZ

Found my Happy Place! I didn’t even think there’d be one here in a small town in northern Arizona. I went to get my haircut at Great Clips, and on the way I passed right by a combo Dunkin/Baskin Robbins. Guess where I went after?

Looks like 981 W On The Greens is the winner. Turns out the new 1072 Nelson Place doesn’t have a space for a dining area, and this is a deal breaker. The first furniture that Donna and I bought when we got married in 1976 was a rattan dining set: a table, four armchairs, a sideboard/buffet thing, and a hutch that have followed us ever since. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to buy it.

This afternoon’s entertainment was a visit to Jerome, AZ, that is less than 10 miles from Cottonwood. It was a boomtown in the late 1800s and early 1900s when copper was discovered in the mountains there. In the ’50s the mine closed, and it became a virtual ghost town. A resurgence happened in the ’70s when artists discovered the place. They have turned the old high school’s 3 buildings into places for artists to open small shops. I bought a future Christmas present for someone in one shop and a digitally manipulated bicycle print for myself.

But the real reason I was there was to visit a spot that I can’t believe isn’t listed on Roadside America’s website, The Skullatorium: Skull Museum and Oddities Parlor. A kid at ten years old found an intact coyote skull and brought it home; it became an obsession. There are over 1500 real skulls on display. There are also a lot of oddities, including a couple of “alien” skulls, a display of miniature 3-D printed skulls, and other weird things. As my favorite Vulcan would say, “Fascinating.”