Homer Tate (September 7, 1884 – February 21, 1975 [1] } was an American nicknamed the "King of Gaffes" for devising strange "artifacts" that were often used in roadside attractions and sideshows to fool and amuse the public. [2] [3] Among his best known works is The Thing.
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than actually being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboards. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a U.S. and Western Canadian phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s, and subsequently caught on in Australia.
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
The Thing is an Arizona roadside attraction hyped by signs along Interstate 10 between El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. A large number of billboards entice travelers along this sparse stretch of desert highway to stop, just to find out what the mysterious Thing might be. The object, supposedly a mummified mother and child, is believed to have been made by exhibit creator Homer Tate for sideshows.
Tate was born in Poetry, Texas, and moved to Arizona in the 1890s [2] and/or to Gila Valley, Arizona, around 1915. [3] He was a miner and a farmer and also operated a motel and gas station. Tate was elected sheriff of Graham County, [2] serving from 1925 to 1928. [3]
Poetry is an unincorporated community primarily in Kaufman County, Texas, United States, but extending into Hunt and Rockwall counties. It is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 986 and 1565, approximately six miles north of Terrell. Originally known as Turner's Point, a post office and school were established in 1858. In 1876, the community was renamed Poetry. The new name was suggested by local merchant Maston Ussery, who said that the area in springtime reminded him of a poem. Poetry's population peaked at around 234 in 1904. Its post office closed in 1905 and service was consolidated with nearby Terrell. A 1984 incorporation vote was approved by local residents, but was invalidated by the Kaufman County Commissioners Court due to technicalities. Today, Poetry is a widely dispersed, lightly populated community.
Graham County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,220, making it the third-least populous county in Arizona. The county seat is Safford.
In the late 1930s [3] or '40s, [2] he began to make artifacts from mud, paper and bones, which he sold for small sums. They were passed off by the purchasers as mummies (such as The Thing), mermaids and shrunken heads. [2] Some of his items were purchased by Mike Wolfe in an episode of the television series American Pickers . [4]
A mummy is a deceased human or an animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 AD.
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.
A shrunken head is a severed and specially prepared human head that is used for trophy, ritual, or trade purposes.
