The Weird West

  

No, I have not become the protagonist in True Grit in search of the Wild West and Tom Cheney.  Despite what the signs say, I'm not in the American Southwest. I'm still in Edinburgh and believe it or not, so is this Wild West Town.

The Wild West Town is a true anomaly with no obvious purpose other than kitsch. Absolutely none of it makes sense. Tucked away in the posh Morningside neighborhood known for housing the famous authors of the city, it's the last place you would expect to find something so delightfully tacky. It's certainly not an area that attracts many tourists, so why put a tourist attraction there? Especially one that is so hard to find once you are actually in Morningside. Directions: Wander down alley that leads to charming residential street, make friends with a cat, see more feline friends than cowboys, decide to give up, stumble upon what appears to be a parking lot, find yourself in the Wild West.  The geography of this city never makes sense to me, but this takes the cake (or should I say horseshoe ring?). And I haven't even gotten to the part where Scotland confused itself Santa Fe. Well, Edinburgh loves quirky tourist attractions.

 [Odd to see my local Minnesota bank in Scotland. If I had known it existed, I probably wouldn't have signed up for the inconvenient Bank of Scotland, but sadly, Edinburgh's Wells Fargo doesn't appear to have an ATM anyway.]

This is a city of stories though, so sure enough there is a story behind this oddity. The Wild West Town was solely designed for commercial purposes. Built by Michael Faulkner in 1996, it was a gimmick to inspire people to buy the Southwestern furniture originally sold in the area (or so the internet tells me because I have no idea what Southwestern furniture looks like. I doubt people use spittoons anymore.) Luckily enough, one of the workers was a former Euro Disney employee hence the "authenticity." (It does remind me of Park City, Utah, a real former "Wild West" town that I posted on earlier this year.) That was the last bit of luck they had because the furniture business petered out, as did the Springvalley Cinema that was hidden there (although the area looks like a movie set already, so why watch a film?), now all that is left is auto body shops covered by these Western facades. No wonder I mistook the area for a parking lot initially.

 

 

 

 Now the Wild West Town's function is seemingly to amuse bored students having a wander to the chagrin of the mechanics who actually work there. I felt like an outlaw wandering around snapping photos in someone's work environment, thankfully, no one threw me in the jail. I guess The Wild West Town does capture the ambiance of that inspired it in the end. One of the workers chuckled at me and said, "You aren't the first." Only in Edinburgh would people completely accept that their place of employment looks like a Disney ride. After all, the city does have a castle at its heart just like the Magic Kingdom.

 

 There's nothing to do there but take photos and muse in the sheer strangeness of it all. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, it's like a roadside attraction. You aren't exactly sure why it's there and why you had to find it, but you did and even though it wasn't what you expected, you're still glad you went.

 

 I thought I knew Edinburgh, but it gets weirder and more wonderful by the day.