Warthers Museum

Wednesday
This morning we took a short drive to the town of Dover, to visit the Warthers Museum, which I had read about online. Ernest Warther was born on October 30, 1885 to Godfrey and Anna, who settled in Dover, like many other Swiss immigrants. However, Ernest’s father died when he was three, leaving five children. All the children had to take on additional responsibilities at a young age, and Ernest’s job at age five was to take the family cow to pasture to graze, and he soon started doing that for other residents too. It was during one of these days, that he found a knife in the road, and this was the beginning of his life long passion for carving. At age 14 he began work in the local steel mill to support his family, but in his free time he developed his skills as a carver. After watching a stranger at the local train depot, he finally figured out how to take a small piece of wood and turn it into an operational pair of pliers making just 10 cuts, with no pins. It’s estimated that he made over 750,000 pairs of small wooden pliers over the years, initially as kid’s souvenirs and later for a nickel a piece to fund the construction of his museum. His record was making all 10 cuts in less than 10 seconds which he did during his appearance on “The Tonight Show”!
As a young boy he had seen dozens of trains passing through his town, and in his 20’s he embarked on what became his life’s work, hand sculpting over sixty works focusing around the steam engine. Crafted in walnut, ebony or ivory, his trains are made of thousands of individual pieces, including the tiniest of white accents, hand carved from ivory or abalone. The detail and accuracy is amazing, especially bearing in mind he never received more than a second grade education at school. Because he had a hard time finding knives he liked, he began a business making his own, providing a financial sideline during the times he was laid off from the mill. Ernest Warther began the museum himself in 1936, in a small building on his own property, and it has been expanded since, the last time in 2002. You can also see the family’s large arrowhead collection, and the beautiful intricate designs his wife Frieda made in her later years out of the huge button collection she had gathered during her life time. The museum is still run by third and fourth generation family members, and outside is a beautifully planted garden. He never sold any of his work. He did give away 17 items, but all but five of those have been returned to the museum, so it is a pretty complete representation of his work.It was a really fascinating morning, and well worth the visit.
Having seen everything there, we went into the centre of town for a coffee and cake, before returning to the State Park, where we went for another beautiful lakeside walk - see extra collage