In Dover, Ohio lived a man named Ernest Warther, known to one and all as "Mooney." He may well have been the greatest carver of all time and definitely a genius. He carved almost all of his life and after retiring from 20 years in a steel mill, he began carving full time. At the museum in Dover you can see an entire history of steam and the great steam locomotives of many railroads, all done in Ivory, Ebony, and Mahoghany.

There is no way I can simply tell you how wonderful and great these pieces are.........they are perfect. Even better are the tales of Mooney himself, a very opinionated fellow........and often viewed as the "Town Nut." Far from it......he was a genius by any standard. He said once he had a vision and carved a block of wood of which he made a duplicate. He cut the block with only straight cuts and there were NO shavings. When he finished, he open the block into a tree made of wooden pliers....555 pair of wooden pliers! The smallest are about a half inch long in the "upper branches" and the trunk pair is about the size of normal pliers. Challenged by Robert Ripley, he refolded them into the block and unfolded them again. It's on display at the Museum.

The Steam Engines are a wonder. They are perfect in every detail to include all the valves and operating gear set in the running positions. Take a look at this page from the Museum website.......CLICK........Did you read it and look at the pics? That Union Pacific "Big Boy" is about 4 foot long and there is no glue holding it together....including the inlay printing and everything else. He hand carved bell ropes out of ivory.....thread thin and look to be "hanging" between the stanchions in the normal rope curvature. Mooney said he only carved bell ropes on Sundays because they were very difficult and any other day he'd be cussing a blue streak....so Sundays were the day...no swearing!

I was lucky enough to grow up close by and he just loved kids. He'd a great canyon like backyard and the old swing was still there when I was a boy. One other important thing..........He NEVER sold a carving...said a man should never sell his hobby. He gave some away over the years, but never sold a one...........and believe me he had offers!!!

He loved Lincoln and there is a carving of the entire Licoln Funeral Train. There are other parts of rail history including carvings of the General, the Yona, and the Texas from the great chase in the Civil War. One last story.........Mooney was showing his visitors the carving of the "Driving of the Golden Spike" one day. It's beautiful of course and he had all the dignataries carved and standing there too. A visitor pointed out that President Grant, whom Mooney had in attendance, was NOT there. Mooney contemplated this for a moment and said, "Well, he shoulda' been!" Mooney died on my birthday in 1973, but he was one of those figures that will always loom large in my memory.

This is a fascinating place for anyone to visit....and I do mean anyone. Mooney built a knife shop and sold his knives and this is the family business located at the museum also....beautiful cutlery today as always. If you like railroading or carving of any sort, all the better. Dover is in eastern Ohio about 90 miles south of Cleveland.

Oh yeah, there's a carving of Casey's #382...so there's your song content.

Spaw