John enjoyed the euphony of "Yew-See-Em-Mew-See-Em," but most visitors were confused. It opened in 1998 under the name UCM Museum. "So this," said John with a sweep of his hand, "is all built on the advice of a madman." She said that Ross didn't have a clue about the business side of his attraction. Then one day John called Tinkertown to check some figures and accidentally spoke to one of Ross's assistants. "My wife would say, 'John, don't you think we should have a business plan?' And I'd say, 'You heard what Ross said. John paid attention and built his attraction accordingly. He approached Ross, who over the next few years became a mentor and open spigot of facts and figures: visitor numbers, seasonal peaks and valleys, how much to spend to get how much in return. John felt he had the skills and the junk needed to make his own Tinkertown-style attraction in Louisiana. Its junk-decor aesthetic and hand-build animated displays were a revelation. Then in 1995, on vacation, he accidentally came across Tinkertown, an attraction built by outsider artist Ross Ward. "I knew everything about the black turtleneck art world, but nothing about the folk art world." "I'd always collected stuff and built stuff, but I didn't know what to do with it," said John. John was nearly 50 before fate sent him down this back road. Yet the Abita Mystery House is a modern-day creation, the vision of John Preble, a professional artist and academic. Even the admission price - three dollars - is a throwback to the nostalgic tourist traps of yore. There's a house covered in thousands of glass shards, a flying saucer crashed into an old Airstream trailer, and the only mine in Louisiana (It's a fake). Monstrous freaks are exhibited, including a "Bassigator" that's 22 feet long. You get to push buttons for all kinds of kooky animated displays. You enter through a vintage 1930s gas station. It's everything that you imagined a quirky, Old-School-style roadside attraction would be.
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