Museum feast day begins summer season

Saturday's Feast Day at the Tucumcari Historical Museum drew a steady crowd throughout day, museum manager Bruce Nutt said.

“We normally have this in June when it’s a little calmer, but this year we combined it with Tipi day and Mother's day and the crowds have been pretty good.”

Mary Jane Edaakie and her husband, Robert, were busy all day cooking horno bread, pasole and fry bread, and making pueblo tacos for hungry visitors.

Known as “the Bread Lady,” Mary Jane Edaakie is from the Isleta Pueblo and this is her seventh year at the feast making traditional native American  food.

In the morning, the museum's tipi was also opened for summer the season.

Tourists Suzanne and Doug Dietrich, on their way to Colorado from Pennsylvania, said they enjoyed the tacos.  “This was well worth stopping for," said Doug Dietrich.

Raven Christopher and Angela Hayes, two cousins traveling from Alabama to the Grand Canyon, said they heard about the event from the visitor's center and decided to stop and relax for a while over lunch.

An annual event, the feast attracts tourists and residents alike to the museum to view the items on display and enjoy a quiet afternoon with good food and friends, Nutt said. It also marks the beginning of the museum's summer hours.

Since January, 40 of the visitors to the museum have been from outside the U.S. This is a new record, according to the museum staff. Saturday's visitors were from as far away as Germany and South Korea.

The Tucumcari Historical Museum is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Saturday. It is located at 416 S. Adams St. Call 461-4201.