Wisconsin: Vampire Valley & Dr. Evermors twisted playground

rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
edited September 30, 2007 in Journeys
Hi all,
First post here!! I love photography, but I'm a total noob. Here is a post that I put up on advrider.com.

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A few weeks ago I was looking at ride reports here on advrider and I ran across Klasjm’s excellent report on Wisconsin. His pics were amazing and I was curious to see what kind of camera he was using so I took a look through his smugmug account. Well, I found the answer and I also found some very interesting pics from a place in Baraboo Wisconsin called Dr. Evermors. I have been to Baraboo hundreds of times over the years and had never heard of this place so I knew I had to see it! Later that day, I told my girlfriend ( Kathy ) about what I found and she said that there was a write up about that place in a book we had recently bought called Weird Wisconsin.

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http://www.weird-wisconsin.com

We bought this book in hopes of finding interesting places to visit on bike trips and now we had a great idea for a ride. Jump forward a week and and I was up in Northern Wisconsin at the Ride for Research and was fortunate enough to talk to Klasjm ( Jim ) and he confirmed that Dr. Evermors was an interesting place to visit.
Last Saturday we woke to gloomy skies and an iffy weather forecast but decided to risk it. We headed east on my Honda VFR towards Baraboo but I had some ideas of things to see before we got to our destination.

County road V outside Hillsboro is a shortcut, if you choose less miles and more time as being a shortcut! This is a fun road to ride but its Amish country so you have to keep an eye out for buggies and Horse poo. I came around a corner and saw this neat abandoned house.
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I love these old houses and it was a perfect start to an interesting day.
www.lonewolfstudios.us
Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
- George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"

Comments

  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
    The Amish present an interestin obstacle at times. I try to give them as much room as possible and try to not spook the horse.
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    Another place that was listed in my book was called Vampire Valley and on Cemetary road near the village of Ironton. Sice we were going through this area I thought we should stop.
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    This was the first time I had seen a headstone like this
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    The wierd Wisconsin book is mainly about local legends and stories and the story about Vampire Valley is just about some boys having fun and scaring girls at an abandoned house along cemetary road. I didn't see any Vampires but it was a nice twisty country road.
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    We eventually make it to Baraboo and head south out of town towards the old Badger Ammuntion plant since our destination is right across the street.

    Coming from the north you would never guess that anything interesting was lurking behind Delaneys surplus store since it looks like an average industrial scrap yard.
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    All you have to do is go for a walk amongst all the old machinery and keep an eye out for a hole in the fence.

    hmm, I think I see something behind this truck!
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    Dr. Evermors sculptures and a product of Tom Every, a retired scrap dealer who was in charge of tearing down many industrial sites and got sick of all the amazing things that were being thrown away and lost due to progress. He began to collect these things and eventually started making things out them.

    There are a few interesting articles about the place on the net, here are a couple links:
    http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attra...ARforever.html

    http://www.folkart.org/mag/evermor/evermor.html

    http://heart2art2heart.com/pages/theforevertron.html

    the centerpiece of the area is the Forevertron which is the worlds largest sculpture made out of scrap.
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    Quote:
    In 1983, he gave his demolition business to a son, renamed himself Dr. Evermor, and began to build what he called the Forevertron. His new identity and mission, which he admits was a "total figment" adopted by "a man under great duress," reprises the imagined saga of a Victorian inventor from Eggington, England -- Every's actual ancestral home. As a child, the fictive Dr. Evermore had been trapped in a massive electrical storm with his father, a Presbyterian minister, who explained to his son that such a force could come only directly from God. From that day on, the young man dedicated his life to constructing an extraordinary spacecraft that would ultimately deliver him from the "phoniness of this world" to the truth and unity of the next.

    I really have no idea what most of these sculptures are called so I'll just post some images:
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    One of the bands that is supposed to entertain the good Doctors guests
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    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
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    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
    Sorry about the finger in the upcoming pic, its kind of an advrider.com thing, the advrider salute. I'll remove it if innapropriate:

    I found a pair of the Doctors sunglasses and thought maybe I could see things differently through his glasses, but I didn't...I just looked like a dork.
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    My girlfriend Kathy sitting in the "Celestial Listening device"
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    the mad scientists workbench
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    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
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    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
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    I think this could be a scene from Hostel!
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    Kathy found some new friends
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    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited June 27, 2007
    Theres my pics. Some of these were taken by my girlfriend Kathy, but most were taken by me. I'd like to know what you guys think! Comments welcome.
    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • LilleGLilleG Registered Users Posts: 313 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2007
    I think it's a place I'd like to visit. I never saw so many weird and wonderful contraptions in one place before. :D
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator
    edited June 28, 2007
    I gotta get up to Barraboo.thumb.gif

    Is this place only open during certain hours or days, or it is a walk in affair?

    Is the owner/artist about or absent during the day?

    Lots of really neat created art. I need to learn to weld. It is one of those skills that has been on my mind about aquiring for a long time. Time to start aquiring.

    Very interesting journey.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • hamsterhamster Registered Users Posts: 361 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2007
    What a great looking place. I especially like your shots of the cars and the last one in post #3. I want to go there!
  • rokklymrokklym Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
    edited September 27, 2007
    pathfinder wrote:
    I gotta get up to Barraboo.thumb.gif

    Is this place only open during certain hours or days, or it is a walk in affair?

    Is the owner/artist about or absent during the day?

    Lots of really neat created art. I need to learn to weld. It is one of those skills that has been on my mind about aquiring for a long time. Time to start aquiring.

    Very interesting journey.

    Not sure when Dr. Evermor is present, some people have met him, I'm guessing weekdays would be the best time to catch him. There were some phone #'s online where you could call and arrange tours I think. I think the best time to visit would be during normal business hours.
    www.lonewolfstudios.us
    Olympus E3 w HLD4, E520, E510 11-22mm, 50-200mm,35mm macro, 14-42mm, 40-150, FL50R & FL36R
    http://rokklym.smugmug.com/
    We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life,to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
    - George Santayana, "The philosophy of travel"
  • coldclimbcoldclimb Registered Users Posts: 1,169 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2007
    Wow, that guy has a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing.
    John Borland
    www.morffed.com
  • DeeDee Registered Users Posts: 2,981 Major grins
    edited September 30, 2007
    welding found junk has always been a desire of mine... so I found this fascinating. The extent of his sculptures, though, is simply amazing.

    As a suggestion, going back when the trees are bare and perhaps with some snow on the ground could help simplify your backgrounds and let the sculptures be more prominent. In a cluttered situation like that, it's so difficult to "simplify" your photographic compositions, but you did quite well, and your images really tell the story.

    I can only imagine how fun it was to visit and take photos... I hope your girlfriend had a good time too.

    I didn't realize the Amish were in that area too. I always think of them as being in Pennsylvania only.

    Like the old deserted house too. To think that at one time it was someone's pride and joy, especially with the arched windows.

    I enjoyed your journey clap.gif
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