Well I guess I’ve known about it all of my life, but really only remember taking the tour a couple of times when I was a kid. You see this tourist trap has been part of my local area, Lake of the Ozarks, MO, before I was born. I need to do some research and find out when it first opened, but I do know it’s been in a couple of different locations along the Bagnell Dam strip on Hwy 54. About ten years ago it was next door to the Haunted Hotel and now it’s in a building where the Legend of Bigfoot exhibit was at one time. (More on these lost tourist traps later)
I paid my two bucks and got a brass token, my ticket to see some of the greatest western outlaws created in wax!
There’s even a Boot Hill with funny tombstones to read.
A 1997 newspaper article about the wax sculptor who created and reworked the wax figures.
Click here if you would like to read the article!
Would be fun to go on a Jesse James tour and hit that and Mermac Caverns.
ReplyDeleteHaunted hotel? Bigfoot exhibit?
What a great place to live.
We passed by Jesse James' hideout on our cross-country move to California in 1996, and then again on our cross-country move back in 2002. There are billboards for about 300 miles in either direction! It's a bit of a let down when you finally see the tiny shack after all that build-up.
ReplyDeleteKirk -- Yeahn there's a bunch of them. I've been to Mermac and there's another one close by there.
ReplyDeleteAndy -- You might be thinking of the one on Hwy 44 close to Mermac Caverns and a toy museum. I'm not aware of any billboards for this one.
If you would like to read the article on the sculptor I've added a link under the photo.