Warther Museum

The spectacular collection of one of the world's best woodcarvers

Category Outsider Art, Unique Collections

Outsider Art http://atlasobscura.com/category/museums-and-collections/outsider-art Unique Collections http://atlasobscura.com/category/museums-and-collections/unique-collections

When Ernest "Mooney" Warther was a boy growing up in Ohio, he met a hobo who taught him how to carve a pair of pliers out of wood. Little did the hobo know, in that simple act he had started Warther on a path to becoming one of the best wood carvers in American history.

Over many decades, self-taught wood carver Mooney Warther continued to carve hundreds of wooden pliers ranging in size from tiny half-inch long versions to enormous three-foot models. His plier carvings culminated in his plier tree - 511 interconnected pliers carved from a single block of wood.

After this Mooney moved to trains, including a replica of Lincoln's funeral train, a carved history of the steam engine, and the 8' Empire State Express, the largest working wood carving in the world. Wife Freida Warther was no slouch, either, amassing a collection of over 100,000 buttons and arranging 73,282 of them in exquisite patterns within her "button house" also featured at the museum.

Tours are given by the Warthers grown grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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  • Hours Summer (Mar. 1 – Nov 30.): Open 7 Days a Week 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Last tour starts at 4 p.m. December (Dec. 1 - Dec 31): Open 7 Days a Week 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Last tour starts at 3 p.m. Winter (Jan. 1 – Feb 28): Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Last tour starts at 3 p.m.
  • Website Official site - Warthers Carvings
  • Address 331 Karl Ave. , Dover, Ohio, United States
  • Cost Adults - $11.50 Children (age 7-17) - $6.00 Children (6 and under) - Free
Map/Directions

Go to Google Maps

Take I-77 to the Dover exit #83 and follow S. R. 211 East ¼ mile into Dover. Entrance is right at the first light after the railroad tracks.

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Comments

  • & Anonymous August 13, 2009
    Wow, I remember visiting this as a kid and I have been trying to remember it ever since.