An Afternoon of Time Travel! Blists Hill Victorian Town

First, I must apologize profusely for the long delay between posts; I was very busy for the last bit of my travel, and then was unfortunate enough to catch a dreadful illness on one of those awful heavier-than-air flying machines. I promise to chronicle the rest of my journey in reasonable time, and then we will get back to regular scheduled DIY tutorials and other such blogging.

So for those of you who may not remember my post on Iron Bridge Gorge, I remind you that the region was the jumping-off-point for the Industrial Revolution. And they built a fantastic outdoor museum to commemorate it! *cue geek-out*

Alrighty, picture spamming time:

This contraption here is to control a mine lift!

Inside an iron-working plant.

This is also the filming location for the show Victorian Pharmacy, which I blogged about ages ago. As if I wasn't already geeking out enough.

Steampunk Town: Baraboo, Wisconsin

While the small population and faint scent of cow droppings may indicate otherwise, the town of Baraboo, Wisconsin contains a remarkable amount of steampunk. To begin with, it's the birthplace of that great bastion of whimsy and horror--the circus. The Ringling Brothers started out in a field just outside of town. While most local circus-related attractions are geared towards the very young and the very old, circus history is certainly something worth thinking about the next time you don a striped corset and mini top hat.

But the real steampunk is housed in Dr. Evermor's Art Park, a massive collection of scrap metal sculptures designed by artists Tom and Eleanor Every. The highlight of the park is the Forevertron, a massive futuristic sculpture made from recycled industrial machinery. I even got a chance to meet one of the artists, who are often on site. Although, at Lady Eleanor's personal request, I will not violate copyright by posting pictures here, you can find a few at the official site, and, to be honest, two dimensions really can't convey the sheer scale and detail of the artwork.

Steampunk Cities: Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

These twin cities, though not really thriving tourist destinations, have a distintive place in my memory as the inspiration for the setting of a steampunk story/book/thing that I've spent the past few years working on. From within a few days of when I first knew steampunk by name, I've thought of the cities of Auburn and Lewiston, with their mill-lined canals and victorian architecture, as a definitive steampunk locale. There's also a spectacular hot air balloon festival every year. Unfortuanately, I missed it on this particular visit, but from previous years' experience, I must say that the sight of a fleet of balloons over an industrial skyline is one of the most steampunk things I have seen in my life.






The city, as viewed from the river.

The Lewiston-Auburn Musuem, which housed a small collection of industrial artifacts. A bit dissapointing after the Charles River Museum, but it contained some things of interest.

Some architecture, as viewed from the museum.

The hot air balloon festival of a previous year.

The city skyline