The Thing In Arizona Just Might Be The Strangest Tourist Trap Yet
By Tori Jane|Published January 04, 2022
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
Tucked away within a rest stop in Benson, Arizona, is… a thing. Well, it’s not just a thing, it’s The Thing. What is it? We suppose you’ll just have to come in and see *it*for yourself, but beware – you may not be able to handle it. When it comes to offbeat roadside attractions in Arizona, it doesn’t get a whole lot stranger than, well, it.
It begins with the signs. There are hundreds of them.
...and they stretch for miles, from Texas to California and beyond. Colored a brilliant, bright yellow with navy-blue text asking, simply, THE THING?, the signs somehow manage to entice you to come closer.
Eventually, no matter where you're coming from, you'll arrive at a remote area of Arizona called the Texas Canyon.
You find the gas station - painted the exact same blue-on-yellow as the billboards you followed here - on its own, surrounded by desert on all sides. Hey, even if it's nothing, at least there's ice cream here.
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From the moment you walk in, you get the feeling that you're in for something weird.
You pay the (very) small fee to enter the museum and are confronted by all sorts of oddities and high strangeness, from aliens and dinosaurs to, ultimately, the main attraction. The mystery of the desert. The Thing.
This rest stop and ultra-bizarre tourist destination was originally owned by a man named Thomas Binkley Prince. In 2018 - relatively recently - the entire museum got a facelift, as the gas station it has grown into upgraded the facilities. What used to be an open-air, small-time sideshow has grown into what it is now: an intriguing (and totally fun) leap into a surreal world where anything is possible.
It's pretty hard to miss The Thing. After all, the signs only extend for hundreds of miles.
You'll stumble upon it if, should you find yourself on Interstate 10 in southern Arizona, you take Exit 322 and follow the signs. When you're there... you'll know.
So, what do you think? Have you ever experienced IT? Do us a favor, though, and don’t say what IT is in the comments – don’t spoil the fun! After all, the mystery is a part of that fun, and we don’t want to ruin it for anyone, right?
