TO FOREVERTRON AND BEYOND
After thoroughly examining and getting nauseous from the House on the Rock, Spike and I set out for the metropolis of Baraboo, Wisconsin. We had hoped to see the circus that always summered in Baraboo, but the circus went out of business. They still have a museum there but I wanted to smell the real thing. After scratching “circus” from our list, we rode to the town of Sumpter, to experience the Forevertron.
It has been said that diamonds are forever. But if, instead of diamonds, you had a pile of
random metal junk and an acetylene torch, that, my friends is Forevertron. Forevertron is the brain child of Thomas Every, a.k.a Dr. Evermore. Every was an associate of Alex Jordan and instrumental in the development of his House on the Rock. He is a self-taught artist and sculptor with extraordinary vision. His work is hard to describe but a delight to behold. All you have to do is find it.
The Forevertron is not shown on most GPS systems because it is not on a street. To get to the park, you need to find an unmarked gravel road off of busy U.S. 12. Spike and I road past the park entrance several times before we abandoned the man code and asked for directions.
At the nearest gas station, we were told to “Go down the road a bit, and right near the place where Zippy Johnson hit a cow in the road, you’ll see a signpost. The sign is gone but that’s where you turn.” Amazingly, we found it.
Sculpture Park, home of Forevertron, is unique in many ways. It does not advertise; it’s not easy to find; and there is no charge to enter, but what we saw was amazing. Giant metal sculptures fill the park, all of them made out of scrap metal, welded together by Dr. Evermore. There are giant insects, an enormous telescope, and a flock of birds whose bodies were made of discarded musical instruments.
At the center of everything is the Forevertron. It is an enormous machine-like sculpture 50 feet tall and weighinf 300 tons. As a machine, it does absolutely nothing, but as art it’s amazing. It is comprised of many parts including lightning rods, 2 Edison dynamos from the 1880’s, and the decontamination chamber from Apollo 11. Take a look for yourself by Googling the Forevertron and looking at the pictures.
After spending two hours admiring the artwork of Dr. Evermore, we headed to Sparta, Wisconsin, home of the FAST company.
The FAST company is not the place where Minute Rice was developed, nor a place where you don’t eat anything. FAST stands for Fiberglass Animals, Shapes & Trademarks.
If you drive down the street and see a giant ice cream cone outside of a custard stand, chances are it came from FAST. They have produced fiberglass figures from bobble-heads to a 145 foot long Musky, currently located in Hayward, Wisconsin.
As we pulled up to the company, we saw a few fiberglass figures out front but the majority of the property was filled with what looked like more stuff for the Forevertron. As we got closer, we discovered that what lay before us are the molds used to make the giant sculptures. This was cool.
We wondered around the “fiberglass graveyard” and soon came upon the mold for Big Boy, the long forgotten spokesman for the best hamburger ever made. This made us hungry so we left to find the last oddity on this trip’s list, a Wisconsin cheese shop that sells Velveta.
So ends this adventure, but the next one is just around the corner. Follow them all at daleirvin.com and subscribe to the Friday Funnies, for FREE. What a deal.
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projection from the house that struts out 200 feet with no apparent support. At the end, you can look straight down to the canyon floor. If you have vertigo, I would avoid this room.
ha, got you on that one. It was filled with pipe organs powered by a bellows the size of Vermont. The Phantom of the Opera was not there the day we visited, but around the corner was a mechanical fifty-piece full-size circus orchestra playing their instruments. And you thought clowns were creepy.
For starters, parked right in front of the Don Q is a c-78 cargo plane from the Korean war. It’s huge and actually landed on an airstrip in front of the hotel in 1977. It has quite a history, including being in a car commercial featuring Farrah Fawcett, and she even autographed the fuselage. When I asked where her signature was, I was told that somebody painted over it. Thank goodness I had a marker with me and put it back where it belonged. I even spelled her last name correctly, Faucet.
copper. I discovered that the tub holds 300 gallons and was formally a cheese vat. There were no jets or fancy plumbing, just 300 gallons of water to which you could add the complimentary bubble bath. I did not use the tub because it was deep and I was alone. ‘Nuff said.