He's busy now in other dimensions. He's not resting.
April 1, 2020 6:28 AM   Subscribe

Tom Every, a.k.a. Dr. Evermor, died on Monday, March 30, 2020 at age 81. His art park, home of the Forevertron, has been featured on PBS, and, naturally, in Atlas Obscura. His body of work, in which junkyard objects gained new life as whimsical creatures and imposing sci-fi contraptions, helped define a genre of sculpture and anticipated the steampunk moment in style. Evermor's art can also be seen at The House on the Rock and in various other places around Wisconsin.
posted by eirias (12 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 6:33 AM on April 1, 2020


I grew up in Baraboo, WI, not too far from his sculpture park. When we visited, he would let my sister and I pick magic marbles out of a jar. We loved to run around and hit the sculptures with sticks, since they were often made from musical instruments or had interesting springs that you could twang.

My parents even got me a piece of his art for a graduation present. I had to get rid of it after it rusted and became a danger to have in the apartment, but I will always remember the magic of running around his sculpture park, waiting for the fantastic creatures to come alive.
posted by turtlebackriding at 8:20 AM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]


.

Visiting the art park was always top of the list when folks came to stay with us (around an hour from Baraboo). It's across an open highway from the former Badger Ammunition Plant. I preferred Dr Evermor's future.
posted by Jesse the K at 8:30 AM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


.

(but also, power on!)
posted by echo target at 9:11 AM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


I discovered Dr. Evermor's park some 20 years ago after stopping with my late husband and a couple of friends at the adjacent surplus store and junkyard.

We were leaving my grandparents farm in middle Wisconsin and being bored, curious twenty-something year olds, just decided to see what was around and settled on the surplus shop we found. It might have even been via phonebook - we were right in the middle of early internet and a trip to my grandparents farm would have been a trip without internet.

As we wandered out back of the aluminium building to see what could be had from the junkyard, there was a path off to the side with a sign that read "Dr. Evermor's Everland*", beyond it towering metal animals.

We explored, a bit dumbfounded by the crazy metal sculptures just tucked away someplace in Wisconsin. At the time, I don't believe there was a lot of wide recognition.

We went back a handful of times just to explore more, even though the sculptures didn't change that quickly, there was always something we didn't notice the previous time. Jokes were made about the imagined characters we invented that explained the different sculptures and why there was a giant science machine next to small metal cats and long-necked, curious birds. Jokes became stories, metal cats slinked behind us and froze in place whenever we turned around to look at them.

Then we stopped. Outgrew it and the friend group drifted apart. Dr. Evermor's faded except the occasional story.

I've wanted to go back many times since; it's only a few hours away. But somehow never made it there.

I'm pretty sure Dr. Evermor isn't dead, he just left this time and dimension in one of the ships he hadn't unveiled to the public.

*My memory isn't totally clear, but it read Everland, Everyland, or Neverland. Unfortunately I can't find any references to any of these names with a simple google search. Somewhere, on a possibly dead hard drive, I believe I have pictures of it from one of the subsequent trips. But finding which drive and praying it works is a project I've not been looking forward to.


.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:15 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]


.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 10:36 AM on April 1, 2020


This is extremely my shit. I loved Watts Towers (from afar, but not too far, in Orange County) as a kid, and finally got to visit them when I worked in L.A.

I love this!

Thanks!!
posted by allthinky at 11:10 AM on April 1, 2020


oh, also,

.
posted by allthinky at 11:11 AM on April 1, 2020


A frequent day trip for me and my friends when I was in high school, and I’ve been lucky to take my kids there too. I desperately hope it stays open.

RIP, Doc.
posted by areaperson at 1:18 PM on April 1, 2020


.

That whole area of the Baraboo Hills is clearly a transdimensional portal, and I'm glad Dr. Evermor figured out how to cross between the worlds in the end (as he must have). The hills themselves are over a billion years old, and they hold plants from before the Ice Ages, as they avoided most glaciation. Wisconsin's biggest natural arch is there, not far from Taliesin and the hallucinatory House on the Rock. Ringling Brothers had their circus HQ in Baraboo, and not far from there is the "Man Mound" -- one of many ancient effigy figures. The Dickeyville Grotto -- with its strange Catholic icons made of gearshift knobs is around the corner. The hills are ancient, charged by magic and eccentricity, with a bloody past in the Blackhawk War, and, one hopes, a future where the portal opens for all of us eventually.
posted by SandCounty at 1:20 PM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]


Baraboo is also the home to "The Pod", an amazing bit of geology that shows what a billion years of geologic forces can do to a chunk of rock. Which, my roommate in college and I created a religion out of. Whenever you see a palindrome on a digital clock, you must bow in the direction of Baraboo.

I still practice this religion...
posted by Windopaene at 3:01 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]


There’s a 2008 book all about Dr. Evermor and his work, A Mythic Obsession: The World of Dr. Evermor. Thanks to the Internet Archive and their temporary removal of waitlists for their borrowable ebooks, you can read it here. (I think you’ll still need to register for a free account to read it.)

[insert clever name here]: The above link might hold the key to the mystery of what was on that sign.
posted by BiggerJ at 11:42 PM on April 1, 2020


« Older "Most people use vim in two stupid dimensions. But...   |   April Foods (or Fool's) Day 2020 Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments