Folk Art Wisconsin: Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron

As fall finally descends upon Wisconsin the time is right for a road trip. I love Wisconsin’s farmlands and rolling hills especially when the trees are raging with yellows, reds and golds. But even these showstoppers can’t hold a candle to some of the folk art installations throughout the state.

In the past, I’ve visited the Dickeyville Grotto, Philip’s Concrete park, and Grandview, which all use concrete and mosaics as the basis for their art. Last week I finally had a chance to visit Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron, which uses scrap metal as the basic medium.

Dr. Evermor is the reborn name of Tom Every, who hated what he was doing to destroy the artifacts of 19th and 20th Century and wanted to salvage them instead. In the 1980s, he sold his demolition business to his son and began creating his sculpture garden and its focal point, the Forevertron. The Forevertron weighs about 300 tons and stands about 50 feet high. It was once named the “World’s Largest Scrap Metal Sculpture,” by Guinness World Records, but has since been displaced.