by Tucked just south of the Baraboo Range and across from the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant, the incredibly kitschy and wild Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park illustrates what you can do with scrap metal – including the world’s largest sculpture of its kind.
Wisconsin is well-known for quirky and kitschy sights along its roads. We’ve seen Jurustic Park near Marshfield, after all. But southern Wisconsin has its own wildly weird and cool spot for creative scraps. Next time you ride along U.S. 12 in Sauk County between Madison and Baraboo, be sure to stop and marvel at the amazing sets of sculptures at Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park. Among a mass of metal rises the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world: Forevertron!
Forevertron itself stands about 50 feet high and is 120 feet wide. Built in the 1980s, it weighs 300 tons! It features all kinds of metal, including high-voltage components from 1920s-era power plants, scrap from the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant that was across U.S. 12 for decades, pieces from the decontamination chamber from the Apollo 11 spacecraft, and even two Thomas Edison dynamos from the 1880s! It’s truly a unique piece of art and metal.
Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park is the brainchild of Tom Every, who was born in Brooklyn, Wisconsin in 1938 and just passed away in 2020. His constructed crafts include many of the installation art at House on the Rock, including for the World’s Largest Carousel down there. A demolition expert, Every spent decades collecting antique machinery that became part of Forevertron and all the crazy stuff around it. Every named his park after “Dr. Evermor,” a Victorian inventor who supposedly designed Forevertron that could launch him “into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam.” The sculpture is designed to be mobile and able to move to a different site if need be – Forevertron was built in sections connected by bolts and pins.
In addition to the Forevertron itself, the sculpture includes a tea house gazebo from which Every says: “Queen Victoria and Prince Albert may observe the launching of Dr. Evermor; it also includes a giant telescope where skeptics may observe the ascent.” If that’s not enough of an eyebrow raiser, some other sculptures are called things like the “Celestial Listening Ear” and the “Overlord Master Control Tower”.
While Forevertron and its surrounding sculptures are considered the centerpiece, Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park features other eye-popping pieces. You can check out gigantic insects like the “Juicer Bug” and “Arachna Artie,” one called “The Dragon” – where we’re surprised it doesn’t actually breathe real fire, given how crazy this place is, a bellows-driven train called the “Epicurean,” and an out-of-this-world one called, of course, “The UFO”. A dizzying array of sculptured birds – nearly 70 of them – make up “Bird Band and Orchestra,” which features pieces from 3 to 20 feet tall, all made from scrap industrial parts, geological survey markers, knives, loudspeakers, springs, and musical instruments, among other salvaged materials. Some old cars and fire trucks are also on the site, with some incorporated into art pieces themselves.
Tours of the sculpture park are free and can be accessed via a small parking lot off southbound U.S. 12 or via the surplus store next door. It’s called Delaney’s Surplus, which is a cool unique shop in itself. They focus on surplus, wholesale, and closeout items and specialize in “oddities” – anything from canned goods and tools to heavy equipment. So you might find something cool to buy while you check out Dr. Evermor’s wildly unique sculpture park. Be sure to stop in next time you’re doing a State Trunk Tour, traversing U.S. 12 between Sauk City and Baraboo.
WHERE TO FIND DR. EVERMOR’S ART SCULPTURE PARK:
Along U.S. Highway 12 north of Sauk City and south of Baraboo in Sauk County, Wisconsin. It’s on the west side of the highway, signs will mark both the park and Delaney’s Surplus. The former Badger Army Ammunition Plant is across the road and the beautiful Baraboo Range is clearly in view to the north unless it’s ridiculously foggy.
Official Address is:
S7703 U.S. Highway 12
Sumpter, WI 53591
(608) 219-7830
Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park Website
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