Elvis Presley’s Cadillacs: The Story Behind the Dream Car

Elvis Presley’s lifelong passion for Cadillacs included a dream for a custom gold-plated Eldorado that was never completed during his lifetime. Nearly a decade after Elvis’s death, George Barris of Barris Kustom Industries built that vision for the Elvis Presley Cosmetics Company. Today, the Elvis Dream Cadillac is on permanent display at Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical … Read more

The Big Five Animals: What They Are and Why They Matter

The Big Five Animals are the African lion, African leopard, African elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. The term refers to the five most difficult and dangerous African animals to hunt on foot, not the five largest species. Today the phrase is more commonly associated with wildlife conservation and safari tourism, and all five can be … Read more

Man-Eating Crocodiles: When a Village Called a Hunter for Help

Tom Bolack and a fellow hunter hunted a man-eating crocodile in Africa after a village asked for help, according to museum accounts. Bolack later recalled that the Nile crocodile contained the beads of seven women. The specimen is displayed today at the Bolack Museum of Fish and Wildlife in Farmington, New Mexico. Plan your visit … Read more

The San Juan Basin: How Oil Shaped Northwest New Mexico

Desert canyon foreground with layered rock formations, a distant city on a flat plain, and snow-capped mountains on the horizon.

The San Juan Basin is a major geologic basin in the Four Corners region and one of the most productive natural gas areas in the United States. The oil and gas industry helped shape communities such as Farmington, Aztec, and Bloomfield. Today, travelers can see pieces of that story firsthand at Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical Museum … Read more

Glass Insulators: A Collector’s Introduction to America’s Most Overlooked Antique

Close-up of high-voltage insulators and bundled cables in an electrical substation, showing gray and brown ceramic components against a blue sky.

Glass insulators are the colorful glass fittings once used on telegraph, telephone, and power lines across North America. Today they are popular collectibles because of their history, variety, and affordability. The Bolack Museum Foundation in Farmington, New Mexico, preserves what it describes as one of the world’s largest glass insulator collections, assembled over a lifetime … Read more