During a phone interview with The Arizona Republic yesterday, I discovered that the state's unusual little Bead Museum, which boasted a reportedly world-class collection of ornamental roundness, was shut down last year. And it reminded me of my own brief, and fruitless, visit to the establishment during one of my research trips for Weird Arizona.
Turns out, the museum wasn't much interested in my interest in them, but I used the opportunity to write a little something about them anyway. However, the resultant pair of articles, a spotlight piece and a personal account of my visit, which I wrote together in 2006, were never published. So, in honor of the now lost assembly of orbs, I present them here. ... Continued