Electromechanical Museum | Bolack Museum Foundation

Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical Museum

Over 3.5 acres of technological history, from antique insulators to a full-size train. Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical Museum traces the evolution of American innovation through thousands of artifacts you won’t find anywhere else.

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A Museum That Defies Description

The people who built this museum will be the first to tell you: words don’t do it justice.

Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical Museum spans multiple buildings on the south side of the B Square Ranch, housing a collection so large and so varied that even longtime staff and frequent visitors say they can’t pick a single favorite exhibit. Antique electrical equipment sits alongside vintage automobiles. Early medical instruments share space with oil field machinery. A full-size train occupies its own stretch of track outside the front entrance.

The collection is the work of Tommy Bolack, the son of ranch founder Tom Bolack. Tommy was an electrical engineer by training, but a collector by nature. He started gathering objects as a child, beginning with a shoebox full of glass insulators he brought home from a family trip to Kansas when he was 5-6 years old. That early fascination never faded. Over the course of his life, Tommy filled three 10,000+ square foot metal buildings, adjacent land, and much of his own 10,000 square foot home with artifacts that trace the history of American technology.

The result is a museum that visitors describe with the same word: mind-blowing.

Exhibits and Collections

The museum’s holdings are organized across several major categories, though surprises wait around every corner.

Electrical Insulators

The museum houses what is believed to be the world’s largest collection of electrical insulators. Tommy’s fascination with insulators began in childhood and continued throughout his life, growing into an assemblage that draws collectors and historians from across the country.Perfect for: History buffs, technology entusiasts, educators, and engineers.

Communications Technology

One of the museum’s strongest themes is the evolution of communication. Hundreds of antique crank-and-dial telephones line the walls, and a vast collection of cell phones documenting nearly every model ever produced. The progression through the history of phones tells a story that most people take for granted until they see it displayed.

Power Generation and Switchboards

Massive switchboards and generators fill entire sections of the museum, some dating back to 1915. One generator, originally installed at El Paso Electric, is mounted in the floor exactly as it was at its original location. Other units in the collection include kerosene-powered generators salvaged from Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Several are set into carved-out sections of the concrete floor, installed exactly the way Tommy wanted them displayed. Tommy personally acquired many of these pieces as utility companies demolished aging facilities, traveling to places like Washington state and Clines Corners to save them. Perfect for: History buffs, technology enthusiasts, educators, and engineers

Vehicles and Transportation

A full-size vintage train sits on the tracks outside the museum, complete with engine, tender, mail car, caboose, water tower, and a railroad signal arm that Tommy was especially proud to find. Nearby sits the Rio La Plata Southern, a coal-fired miniature train originally called the Fitchburg Northern. After learning that a friend had sold it, Tommy tracked down the buyer and paid double the asking price to get it back, then gave it a new name.

Inside the buildings, visitors encounter a custom Cadillac known as Elvis Presley’s Dream Car, one of the collection’s most photographed exhibits. The car features 37 layers of paint with gold flakes and was purchased from a collector in Las Vegas.

Military and Aviation

The museum holds the fuselage and cockpit of a WWII-era Corsair flown by Pappy Boyington, the legendary Marine Corps ace. Visitors can climb inside the cockpit of a Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter and sit behind the controls of an M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer. The collection also includes a T-38 Talon, a jet trainer used by the U.S. Air Force, and a Continental R-975 radial engine, a nine-cylinder, air-cooled gasoline engine of the type used to power tanks and heavy military equipment during World War II.Perfect for: History buffs, technology enthusiasts, educators, and engineers

Oil Field Equipment

Outside the museum buildings, visitors can see an antique cable tool drilling rig from the 1920s and 1930s, which used a percussion method to penetrate the ground. Nearby sits a “doghouse,” the portable metal shelter used on well site locations, that Tom Bolack used during his earliest drilling operations in the San Juan Basin.

And More

You can also see a coal-powered steam tractor with metal tracks, Model-T Fords from the early 1920s, vintage computers and floppy disks, arcade cabinets including an original Super Mario Bros, photographs, record players, Edison wax cylinders, and so much more. The collection reflects a lifetime of passionate and focused collecting. No summary can fully account for everything inside these walls.

The museum is the life’s work of Tommy Bolack, an electrical engineer and lifelong collector who started with a shoebox full of glass insulators at age 5-6 and never stopped. Over the decades, he filled three 10,000-square-foot buildings, adjoining property and much of his own home with artifacts tracing the history of American technology. Read his full story on our About page.

Visit the Electromechanical Museum

(505) 325-4275
3901 Bloomfield Highway, Farmington, NM 87401
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM Mountain Time
Closed Sundays and certain holidays

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