Page 39 from: May 2008

May 2008 039

By Adam Minter

A 15-foot radiator penetrated by a giant key, a 20-foot iron heart
with a ray gun protruding from it and
a giant scrap metal chicken with
plumage partially constructed from
brass doorknobs – all appear in rapid
succession on the southbound high-
way out of Baraboo, Wisconsin. And
down a dirt road, past a giant scrap
metal moth, emerges
a 100-foot long, four-
storey, 400-tonne
scrap metal collage
topped by ray guns, a
telescope, a viewing
platform for Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert, and a giant glass ball shroud-
ed in a copper egg.
The hand-painted sign announces:
‘Guineness [sic] Book of Records …
World’s Largest Scrap Metal Sculp-
ture “The Forevertron”.’ But the
owner of the sign and of the Forever-
tron takes exception to the descrip-
tion. ‘The art idea, that’s a judgment
thing that some people have made
up,’ grumbles prickly Dr Evermor at
his table in the Blue Spoon Creamery
Cafe in nearby Prairie du Sac.
‘To begin with,’ he explains, ‘the For-
evertron’s purpose is to perpetuate
me into heaven in a glass ball inside a

copper egg on a magnetic lightning
force beam.’ He pauses, offers a half
smile, takes a deep breath and glanc-
es at elegant Lady Eleanor (also
known as Eleanor Every) – his com-
panion of more than 40 years. Sud-
denly, the bluster of Dr Evermor slips
into the soft sigh of Tom Every, a
career scrap man. ‘Actually, the reason

for that device is that I don’t like law-
yers or politicians or that like,’ he
adds. ‘I’m from the scrap world, where
people are honourable.’
Despite fi rst impressions, Dr Evermor
and the Forevertron (located in a
just-renovated ‘Historical Artistic
Memorial Metal Sculpture Park’) are
more than Midwestern roadside
curiosities. Major museums, includ-
ing the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
have organised visiting delegations
while academics, critics and curators
have written treatises exploring the
meaning of the Forevertron, its
inventor and its aesthetics.
Yet Mr Every isn’t impressed. ‘I’ve got

a bunch of college professors making
a bunch of money running all over the
USA talking about the philosophy of
Dr Evermor,’ he says. ‘What a bunch
of s*@t! I’m just a small-time scrap
guy from Wisconsin who used to drive
a Ford truck.’
Born in 1938, Mr Every started
collecting rags and newspapers with

the Cub Scouts when
he was 11 years old.
Soon, he struck out on
his own and expanded
into scrap iron, used
tyres and anything

that seemed remotely salvageable.
‘People always ask Dr Evermor where
he got his PhD,’ he says. ‘And I tell
them the School of Hard Knocks and
the Jewish School of Technology.’
While earning those degrees, he ran a
highly successful demolition business.
Despite fi nancial success, he began
to feel restless and to look at his
demolitions in a different way: ‘When
I was wrecking something, I’d start
to look at it as something else. I’d
ask, “What’s it good for?”’
In 1983, he developed a story about
a 19th century inventor named
Dr Evermor who builds a machine to
launch himself into the heavens. Util-

ising a large collection of 19th cen-
tury industrial cast-offs, he built the
Forevertron to appear as if it were
constructed in the 1890s. ‘I love the
old machines,’ Mr Every explains.
His collection of 19th century machin-
ery, as preserved in the Forevertron, is
so complete that it has served as a
classroom for industrial history and
design students. Space buffs also have
taken an interest in the Forevertron: a
decontamination chamber from the
Apollo moon missions is a major com-
ponent.
He still has plans to attach another
‘couple tons’ of metal and ‘the fi bre
optics’ to the Forevertron. More
dauntingly, he is determined to relo-
cate the entire machine, all 400
tonnes of it, across the highway to the
boiler room of the abandoned Badger
Army Ammunition Plant.

According to the signage,
The Forevertron is the

largest scrap metal sculp-
ture in the world and has

inspired intellectual
interpretation by a range
of academics, critics and
curators. But the owner
of this huge collage of
19th century industrial

cast-offs holds to his own
forthright view.

The Forevertron – art, history
lesson or ticket to the heavens?

’The Forevertron’s purpose is to
perpetuate me into heaven.’

The Forevertron in Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA is the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world.

Dr Evermor: ‘The art idea, that’s a judgment thing
that some people have made up.’

Scrap Art

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