Dr. Evermor's Forevertron: best steampunk sculpture EVER. Yes, ever. Including all the great stuff at Burning Man. This guy wins. You've just never seen it, because it's in semi-rural Wisconsin (here). It's also the biggest scrap-metal sculpture in the world, so he wins the stuff-recycled-into-art prize, too.
| Badly-stitched panorama of the Forevertron, with observation gazebo for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at left, and telescope at right. The Forevertron includes many parts from 1920's power plants, as well as an original 1880's Edison dynamo and a decontamination chamber from the Apollo project. |
A really badly-stitched panorama, from the other side
Buried in the bottom left is the 1880's Edison dynamo.
Antique fire-extinguisher cannon out front (and steel ants).
This part of the Forevertron may or may not be the decontamination chamber from one of the Apollo missions.
Observation gazebo for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (very fancy throne inside)
You can just hear the mad scientist within you cackling, can't you?
A few of the 70+ bird orchestra. Note the thirty-foot-tall guitar bird in back.
(The foreground chime bird is almost 10' tall.)
Rotor from the 1880's Edison dynamo. The grey ovals around the coils of wire are WOODEN insulators.
This jet-bug was about 20' long and tall enough for me to stand under the wings.
The rear of the jet-bug is some kind of gigantic valve (grain elevator?)
Antique fire extinguisher that warns you not to let it freeze (because they just used water back then). Oh, and a cannon.
This fish was the only rust-free piece on the whole lot.
For some reason, the Wikipedia article on the Forevertron is barely more than a stub. If you've been there and talked to Dr. Evermor and remember his spiels, please go add them for posterity!
I've been to the Forevertron a few times, and on my most recent visit in summer 2007 I heard rumors that Dr. Evermore (the fellow who built most of it) was very ill. In fact the sculpture campus was closed and overgrown, and folks were getting in by climbing over fences or shimmying under gates.
These pictures appear to be more recent, since there are a couple small animal pieces I don't recognize and the area around the "jet bug" looks cleaned up. Did you see Dr. Evermore? (Real name Tom Every.) Did you hear anything about his health? I'm very curious to know.
Feel free to contact me at the provided e-mail address. Thanks!
Posted by: PHLP on 5 Apr 10
I have friends in the Twin Cities who want to find the power switch and turn the ForeverTron ``0n``.
Posted by: Eric on 5 Apr 10
We visit this place about once a year, usually in the spring. It is fun and amazing. It is unfortunately true that Dr. Evermore is now living at an assisted living center, and the future of the site is unknown. You can still visit on weekends, just enter at Delaney's Surplus and walk around.
I have a ton of pictures dating back for a few years. My best visit ever though was the time I met the Wizard of Speed and Time himself, Mike Jittlov. But that is another story.
///d@
Posted by: Dithermaster on 5 Apr 10
Anyone interested in this type of art may find this book informational and inspiring: http://bit.ly/bDFzKP
Posted by: Jesse McFarlane on 5 Apr 10
Thank you for posting this. It's absolutely wonderful. I hope someone gathers photos from these sculptures or properly photographs it and puts together stories and information about the man who created this. I'm interested to know more.
Posted by: adriana on 6 Apr 10
I grew up in Baraboo, right in this part of rural Wisconsin, and my father was a close friend of Dr. Evermor's. I remember being a starry-eyed little kid, looking at all of his wonderful creations while my father and Doc would talk endlessly. That was 12 years ago. I was put to tears while reading this article. Thank you, sincerely. More people need to see this.
Posted by: Logan on 7 Apr 10
Looks like something out of The Dark Crystal.
Posted by: Phil E. Drifter on 7 Apr 10
Wow, at first I thought it looked some sort of "theme park". Some of the components that he used should be in the Smithsonian rather than in an art exhibit, but I can see a congruency to the pieces in the overall work.
Posted by: Mark Owen on 12 Jul 10
Please note that comments will remain open for only 14 days after the article is posted. While previous comments will remain visible, attempts to post new comments after this period will fail. This helps stop comment spam, so your forebearance is appreciated.
The Worldchanging comments are meant to be used for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in our posts. Please note that, while constructive disagreement is fine, insults and abuse are not, and will result in the comment being deleted and a likely ban from commenting. We will also delete at will and without warning comments we believe are designed to disrupt a conversation rather than contribute to it. In short, we'll kill troll posts.
Finally, please note that comments which simply repost copyrighted works or commercial messages will be summarily deleted.
Get good news for a change —Click here to sign up!
For the latest worldchanging solutions and planetary thinking, follow Worldchanging's Alex Steffen on Twitter: @AlexSteffen
