Tom Whitaker’s face lights up as he sits perched on “Grandpa’s potty chair,” and describes the Wild West artifacts he has spent 51 years curating with his wife, Linda.
The collection is housed in a 140-year-old cabin that looks straight out of a Western movie on the northside of Memorial Hill at 510 N River Road. It’s only open one day a year–July 4–from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and for the occasional private tour.
Tom estimates he has 2,000-3,000 items in the 2,500-square-foot cabin; a photo of the original structure hangs on the wall near the entryway. He purchased some of the collection from Gary and Carol Russell from Kamas and the rest was found online and in antique stores.
Tom’s cabin has a Buffalo Bill room, railroad memorabilia, cowboy and Indian artifacts and a collection of Civil War-era treasures. Each item is carefully staged on antique furniture or preserved in display cases. An old coin-operated horse sits dormant waiting to come to life.
“My wife likes these–it's just the old 1950s grocery-store horse," he said. "You know put your money in and sit and shoot the Indians which is not very politically correct but the buffalo comes and then Indians come and you can sit and shoot him. This still works.”
There’s even a brothel upstairs with many of the items you’d expect to find: frilly corsets, ornate hair combs, garters, elegant hand fans, perfume bottles and a small gun the women used to protect themselves. A basket of coins sits at the foot of the bed.
“And these are actually replicas even though they don't look like replicas. But these are little tokens that read, ‘Food, whiskey and girls. Anyway, any day.’ They used these in the brothels but I’m not sure how they work. I’ve never been to one.”
Tom and his family moved to the Heber Valley from California in 1952 and he has always been fascinated by old things. “My dad and uncles bought Schneitter's Hot Pots and turned it into The Homestead so it was a family-run business. And I remember going with my dad to Park City when it was only 250 people. It was a ghost town, literally. And we were walking up and down Main Street, looking for antiques and I still have a gun that we bought on one of our visits. It's over at the house: an 1860 Civil War musket.”
He has a few personal artifacts, including an old pair of snowshoes his wife gifted him when they were first married, as well as a family photo. “This is actually my great great grandfather, George Whitaker, with his four sisters. I always thought they were his wives but my mother said, ‘No, those were all sisters.’ They don't look very happy do they?”
But this private cowboy museum is sure to bring a smile to your face as you rediscover this forgotten slice of Americana on the nation’s birthday.
