One Man's Junk Equals Fellow Gear Lover's Treasures

As a retired industrial wrecker, Tom Every, a.k.a. Dr. Evermore, has a collection of gears that would rival many small warehouses. Instead of building a page on E-bay, Every decided it was time to find a home for some of his gears.

He did exactly that, but rather than fill up his own garage with the gears, he started building sculptures that contained gears by the ton in 1983. Housed in North Freedom-Baraboo, WI, behind a surplus store, Every’s industrial sculpture site is a must-see for every avid road tripper and gear lover.

Most well-known is “The Forevertron,” which he calls a mechanical fantasy and a testement to the Industrial Revolution. Weighing in at 400 tons, the sculpture is dotted with gears that are both functional and decorative. Every hopes that, in hundreds of years when archeological specialists uncover his creation, they’ll come away with a new appreciation for gears.

“I love gears and would never distort one,” he says. “They represent an energy point. If I want to accent a point of motion, I use a gear as an additive. For instance, I made one small sculpture of a bird and used a gear on the breast plate to demonstrate its movement.”

Most of Every’s gears came from the world’s largest paper mill manufacturer and old Milwaukee breweries that he demolished.

“Some of these gears cost thousands of dollars to make. I loved those little machine shops that made the gears and wanted to honor them,” he explains as motivation behind his unconventional retirement occupation.

His creations are unmarked, so you’ll need to talk to Dr. Evermore himself to learn the significance, but it’s definitely worth driving a few miles off the beaten path to meet a fellow lover of gears.

Every’s sculptures are located at:
US Highway 12
North Freedom-Baraboo, WI
(Across the highway from the Badger Army Ammunition Plant and behind Delaney’s Surplus.)
Phone: (608) 643-8009