Featured Amazing NA Basket Museum

Near the coastal town of Klamath, California, in the far northwest part of the state, close to the Yurok Nation, is the tourist attraction "Trees of Mystery." A 50' talking statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox greet the many tourists who stop in here, including me yesterday.

Here you can walk in huge redwood trees (which are all around the area) and take a 'skywalk' higher in the trees' canopy. Fair enough.

But in the back of the gift shop, past the coffee cups and the T-shirts, the house-made fudge and the stuffed animals, is a magnificent private collection of Native American artifacts and artworks. Chiefly collected by Marylee Thompson Smith, wife of one of the men who developed the tourist attraction, the museum is the most amazing collections of baskets I've ever seen. It's totally free, almost an afterthought compared to the other 'attractions.' There was only a couple people in it. The line for the Paul Bunyan burger, on the other hand, was long indeed...

I post these eye-candy pics just to share. Truly, it's amazing.

 

Part 2:

 

And part 3:

 

Is this too many pics????



Phew... that's it. My phone is gonna have a nervous breakdown after all that.

Enjoy this virtual museum tour! I know I did.

 

Stunning, and deeply moving. Thanks...

To think of what was, and is no more...the talent, the cultures, the history...and the tears, and the blood.

 

Thankyou for the fabulous tour. I took my time and soaked each picture in. So many things to look at. That woven rattle snake was a real surprise! What a collection of top notch quality work here.

 

That hits where I live !!
That's a real hidden gem .......
Thanks for the memories............

and just to be mildly vulgar........ there's over a million dollars worth of artifacts there....!

 

Not at all! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Such a huge and amazing collection, and privately collected too! Thank you so much for showing us, Pottery.

And on the top shelf an Apache Gan dancer for @bosko69 , to the left of it a Gan dancer's mask/headdress:

 

Magnificent!

 

Thanks for sharing. So interesting to see everything.

 

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing those. Every photo has stunning items, but my personal favorites were the ones that had the women's clothing and all the brain tan leather, beadwork, quillwork, and the elk teeth.

 

What a wonderful collection! I visited "Trees of Mystery" in 1978 and this attraction was either not there or I somehow missed it. If, I'm ever back in this area I will certainly make it a "must see".

 

Those are absolutely marvelous! Thanks for the wonderful photos!
Leslie

 

What a STUNNING and AWESOME collection!!!! When you said "Private" collection, someone went to a LOT of effort if it's ONE individual doing the collecting!!!! YOUR photos are WONDERFUL as well!!!! THANK YOU for showing us!!!!

 

Good Lord-this looks more like the Smithsonian ! I've driven by the Trees of Mystery roadside attraction so many times-Mimbres pottery,nuts !

 

Christies and Sothebys (and every Museum in the country,world) are drooling for this stuff.Not the Trees,but the Museum of Mysteries-how the hell did this stuff end up in Klamath ?...there's a book in this story.

 

Never too many pictures, impossible! There is so much eye candy, one hardly knows where to look first. Thank you for sharing.

 

Very Cool! Thanks!

 

This is cut from the Trees of Mystery website-

The End of the Trail Collection is attached to the north end of the Trees of Mystery gift shop and is one of the largest privately owned world class Collections there is.
What you see in our Collection is the culmination of a dream that began over 30 years ago.
The mission and scope of the End of The Trail Private Collection could hardly be explained any better than they were in the words of Marylee Thompson Smith, the main collector and person most responsible for its existence, spoken on the day it opened, on March 10, 1968:
“Dear Friends, Welcome! What you see here in our Collection is the culmination of a dream that began over 30 years ago when I became interested in the ancient and modern cultures of our “First Americans”.

I guess Museum quality artifacts were affordable during The Depression (She started Her collection in 1938). Maybe Marylee just put ads in newspapers of the time-'Gunther's Island Slave Killers Wanted-will buy one or a thousand items-cash paid'.
I dearly hope they have a 'Mission Impossible' level security system protecting this irreplaceable collection.

 

there's a thermometer with the Tlingit stuff......I'm sure the collection is in good hands..