How to Find the Museum of Woodcarving and Let Others Know if it was Worth the Trip

Joe Barta picks a nice, sunny day to chisel his spear and shield carrying African warrior boy, who will soon be placed in the "Suffer the Children" exhibit inside his curious shaped museum building in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. I am going to guess the extension to the building is where the massive Last Supper is displayed, but you shouldn't take my word for it. The museum is open May through October, so wait for a thaw. Joe carved 100 life-sized figures and 400 miniatures.

For those of you who do not know where Shell Lake is, go to Spooner and you will be close. In the old days, say 5 years ago...you could stop at the local gas station and ask Gomer "Is there any good stuff to do around here" and probably learn about his dog and the time he fell into the grease pit while giving directions, THAT was quite a day...but today there is a better way.

Trip Advisor® (A website which provides information on things one used to "happen upon") kindly gives not only numerous links to travel and reservation sites but tons of aggregated information you don't really need like Weather Underground® average rainfall in August (5 inches) , the "top rated" restaurants nearby (Bistro 63...7.4 miles down Highway 63 from the museum, so skip the restroom) it also allows all to contribute their OWN reviews of the attraction! (In case you are one of those people who can't mind their own business)

I will let you read the detailed reviews from your peers yourself while you plan your trip HERE.

Joe Barta Museum of Woodcarving Real Photo Post Card collection Jim Linderman

Archie Zimmerman: Carving like a Cartoonist

There are still 19th and early 20th century folk art collections and bodies of work to be found. I had thought the last gasp for searchers of work by undiscovered eccentric carvers may have been the first few years of Ebay, when folks in Middle-America started listing things they found in the attic as they learned to use their computers. Scarce few groups of work remain, but husband and wife team Heidi Kellner and Robert Zordani found some, the eccentric pieces of comic book carvings created by Archie Zimmerman. They won't change the world, and there have certainly been better folk artists, including many who worked in a similar manner. (Fred Alten, Earl Eyman and dozens more...whittling used to be done until the sun went ALL the way down) But the recently found cache is unique in their comic book quality. Each seems stretched and skewed in a way that characters in the Sunday Funnies and matinee cartoons used to be. Zimmerman passed away in 1961. A few examples are shown above, the biography and more examples of his zany creations are shown at the Z & K Antiques Website.