Garysburg, North Carolina: Q. J. Stephenson's Occoneechee Trapper's Lodge

Q. J. Stephenson was a trapper and dragline operator for forty years. While on the job he had a knack for spotting fossils and relics and began amassing quite a collection of found objects. He actually became somewhat well known around the country for his ability to make important paleontological discoveries, and one of his finds, a 4 million year old walrus tusk, wound up in the Smithsonian.

When he retired in the '70s and found himself with lots of time on his hands, he started work on his Occoneechee Trapper's Lodge. Also called the Earth Museum, the lodge was a small one-room cinder block building in front of Stephenson's house that he began decorating by embedding the interior and exterior walls with fossils, stones, bones, petrified wood, cypress knees, arrowheads, Civil War relics, and other items from his collection.

In the '80s, Stephenson started transforming some of his finds into statues of imaginary creatures, constructed of concrete and relics. He also made plaques and other works of art out of concrete and found items, and continued to decorate the museum, both inside and out. Eventually his work began to spill out into the yard (like a couple totem poles and a dinosaur statue labeled "Terrible Lizard Plant Eater From Time Before Man.") He wound up having a fairly successful second career as a folk artist.

Q.J. died in 1997, but his wife has maintained the museum, even going as far as having a new roof put on last Spring. Unfortunately, even when Stephenson was alive, the museum was only open by appointment (and then usually only to school groups and scout troops.). Now, the museum is rarely opened, but there's plenty to view from the outside. I was lucky enough to be there one day when Mrs. Stephenson wanted to check the new roof for leaks, and she invited me in. The single room is packed, from floor to ceiling, with Stephenson's collection and his art. And there's a great collection of polished cypress knees hanging down from the ceiling like stalactites.

In a number of ways, the Earth Museum reminds me of Henry Warren's Shangri-La. They're both in tiny NC towns, both right beside the road, both maintained by the creator's widows, and both are clear examples of dementia concretia.