In 2005 he rechristened it the Abita Mystery House in honor of the Winchester Mystery House, another venerable attraction whose success he admired. "I eventually realized that you shouldn't have a name you have to explain," said John. 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. You've visited the Abita Mystery House before - in your dreams. The popular History Channel show American Pickers paid Preble and his creations a visit for their Augepisode titled "Louisiana Purchase.John Preble puts on his "dumb look" for the camera in front of the Bassigator. The Abita Mystery House has been featured in books and on television. John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art, has even gone as far as saying that the Abita Mystery House is the "most intriguing and provocative museum in Louisiana." In the press The Mystery House is unique in that it bears a particularly odd aesthetic, drawing alternative crowds with an eye for the strange. Originally called the UCM Museum till its official name change in 2007, the house entrance is a vintage gas station, with filling pumps and bright decor, which leads to open air sections, the main exhibition hall, a ninety-year-old Creole cottage, and the House of Shards, among other attractions. Maintained by artist/inventor John Preble, whose inspiration came from the Tinkertown Museum in New Mexico, it offers thousands of folk art objects ranging from miniatures, to pottery, to Louisiana-themed sculptures like Darrel the Dogigator (half alligator, half dog) and Edmond the Allisapien (half alligator, half homo sapiens). The Abita Mystery House is a roadside attraction located in the heart of Abita Springs, Louisiana, United States.
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