Onion River Exploration Project: Jurustic Park

Eileen with some new friends

Day 2 (5/23/22)

While sitting in the parking lot of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum we started perusing the internet looking for things to do in the area for an hour until it opened. We had already walked the downtown area looking for things to kill time but most everything was closed. Eileen found a reference to Jurustic Park. With a little more searching we found out it was about forty one minutes away in the wrong direction from our return trip home. We figured it had to be better than sitting and waiting for the museum to open so we took off in the direction of Marshfield not sure what we were going to find. Using the miracle of cell phone navigation, about an hour later we were entering the McMillan Marsh and the realm of Jurustic Park. At first it can be a little overwhelming. There are metal sculptures all over the place. Big ones, small ones and ginormous ones everywhere you turn. We made our way toward a building that looked like it was inhabited by a hobbit and found the office and gift shop. We started looking around and were soon welcomed by Nancy, the Lady of the House. She showed us around the shop and explained that when Clyde was finished with his current victims he would give us the grand tour. Soon we were on our way. Clyde is a born showman with years of honing his skills through jurisprudence. At eighty eight years young he still has a twinkle in his eye and a contagious enthusiasm for what he does. He will tell you that before retiring from his career as a lawyer he found his first fossilized metal remains in the marsh and started welding them back together. Many of the pieces are animated and he has a story to go with all of them. It is his world and he is their ring master. Some wiggle, some make noise, but all are candy for the eye. After the tour we went inside where Nancy demonstrated using the glass lathe. Perhaps because we were also artists before long it was like being with old friends. We talked about Nancy’s travels and their hopes for the future and what would become of the place. We hadn’t planned on staying long but by the time we left it was time to work our way home and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson would have to wait for another day. No regrets, it was a wonderful day.