What will happen to Trigger? (Ozark, Branson: for sale, 2009, rent)

[McGowdog]

Is it true? I heard they're tearing down the Roy Roger's Museum! They moved it to there from Apple Valley/Victorville California! I grew up going to see my uncle in Apple Valley and always anticipated seeing Trigger!

Are they gonna send the kit n kaboodle back to California? They need to do something with the museum. Who's gonna carry on the Legend?

[ShadowCaver]

Looks like they need more, much more foot traffic to keep the doors open.
Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum may be forced to close | museum, roy, rogers - Breaking News - Victorville Daily Press

The couple's son, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr., donated $33,000 to cover the museum's rent for the month of January. The family is hoping other Roy and Dale fans will step up and do the same, to secure the museum until tourists return to Branson in the spring. ...

Amazing to me that their expenses are over $70k a month... wow. Good luck to them.

[Curmudgeon]

This is very sad to me. I grew up in the late 40s and in the 50s watched the Roy Rogers Show in black and white. Roy and Dale summered on the small island I lived on in Newport Beach and I played with their children for several years.

Happy Trails, Roy, Dale, Trigger and the children.

[joetownmom]

I hope it doesn't close; it's one of the attractions in Branson that our whole family likes. I met Roy in California some years back and he was as nice in person, in a chance encounter as on the silver screen.

I fear, though, that this closing will be the first of many in Branson. With the economy in this mess, people are not going to have extra money to spend on vacations.

[mcol]

Interesting reading various articles on this.
They are asking people to pledge $10,000 a month to them
for 3 months. They claim they are non-profit (?).

I think the monthly expenses could be chopped down a bit. I saw
a breakdown somewhere. Also was reading a California forum about
it and there is much animosity towards Dusty for the way it has
been run.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Is it true? I heard they're tearing down the Roy Roger's Museum! They moved it to there from Apple Valley/Victorville California! I grew up going to see my uncle in Apple Valley and always anticipated seeing Trigger!

Are they gonna send the kit n kaboodle back to California? They need to do something with the museum. Who's gonna carry on the Legend?

There are tons of marketing opportunities that "Dusty" could have taken advantage of. Cowboy Poetry is HUGE! There are also lots of other cowboy-related things that he could have brought in to increase his foot traffic and revenue. They are not very inventive when it comes to marketing.

They really aren't in the best location. Hard to see from the strip (you have to search them out), and there really is not much around them to bring people in. If they had really been smart, they would have incorporated some kind of food-related opportunity there - a real chuckwagon dinner would have been interesting. You can always bring people in with food.

I went to the museum when it was in Victorville and even met Roy there. It was pretty cool. I'd like to see them prosper and succeed in Branson, but it is highly competitive and if you don't give people a "value added" experience chances are they will chose another attraction instead. Dog eat dog, you know.

20yrsinBranson

[firebll31]

I would like to see them move to the Ralph Foster Museum at School of the Ozarks. They have a lot of interesting displays there, and I think Trigger would fit right in!

[MOMommyx3]

Originally Posted by firebll31

I would like to see them move to the Ralph Foster Museum at School of the Ozarks. They have a lot of interesting displays there, and I think Trigger would fit right in!

That is a great idea! I agree that their current location is sub-par. Now they don't even have the Celebration City crowd who might see it.

[McGowdog]

Thanks for the responses and info. When my wife and I (and I think my parents were with us on the last trip) were last there (or the time before) we stopped by there and it was closed and I'd agree with 20Years that it was off the beaten path, which is hard to do in Branson!

I think I met Roy Rogers when I was very young... barely remember that part. I do remember Trigger though!

I like the idea of the Chuck Wagon, kind of like the Tall Timber Lumberjack Show! With Haus and the gang! Or they could do like the Flying W in Colorado Springs where they have the BBQ meat, beans, spuds, on a tin plate so hot that they have to put a little spot of apple sauce on it so your thumb and finger won't burn where you hold the plate.

Anyway, I'd just like to see a good home for the place, even if they have to team up someplace else. They could probably fit the whole display in the men's bathroom at Shoji Tabuchi's (sp??).

What brought be back in here and reminded me that I started this thread in the first place is what I heard on the radio last night driving home from work; guitar for sale.