May Natural History Museum of the Tropics
- 710 Rock Creek Canyon Road, southwest of Colorado Springs
- Phone; 800-666-3841
- Cost: $4.50, seniors $3.50, kids $2.50
More commonly called May’s Insect
Museum, this is the kind of roadside attraction
that barely exists anymore. Like the Wigwam
Motel in Holbrook, Ariz. and the Double Decker
Outhouse in Dover, Ark., May’s is an oddly
tempting stopover for curious motorists.
It is difficult to miss May’s when traversing
two-lane Colo. 115 in the foothills near
Colorado Springs. A succession of wooden signs
stamp out a chance of overlooking this buggy
attraction. Hercules, a 16-foot horned beetle fit
for a B-grade sci-fi movie, signals where to turn
for Colorado’s largest collection of dead bugs.
Founded in the 1940’s, May’s collection
boasts more than 100,000 insects. Only the
most unusual are on permanent display.
“Highlights”include a 17-inch “stick insect”
from New Guinea, the 10-inch-wide Indian
Actius moth that once fended off predators by
imitating a cobra, and Columbian beetles so
huge they could waylay a human.
Rancher John May, the son of British-born
adventurer James May, first opened the museum.
Born in 1884, father James had been
raised in Brazil, where he first began capturing
and preserving six-legged creatures for his
own edification.
The specimens represent James May’s
life work. For a half-century, he traveled
the globe – New Guinea, the Congo,
Peru and elsewhere – netting insects
without modern safety or directional
accoutrements. May simply hacked
his way through jungles, picking up
the insects, including poisonous
ones, and delicately placing them in
his trusty bag. The self-styled insect whisperer
reportedly would shoot large grasshoppers
with a shotgun filled with sand and lure butterflies
with overripe fruit and liquor.
May’s museum is more novelty than learning
experience, however. Don’t expect interactive
exhibits or detailed information about the
bugs. Insects are displayed with little regard
for geographic or other context. A typical placard
reads, in total, “Did you know butterflies
taste with their feet?”
Regardless, May’s museum is an example of
road-trip culture that has largely gone the way
car bingo and Stuckey’s-lined interstates.
Further south stands yet another survivor –
one of several sites claiming to have world’s
largest chair.
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