Lakenenland - A Free Scrap Iron Sculpture Park in Michigan, Upper Peninsula

"Hello and welcome to my junkyard." - That's the hilariously understated way in which ironworker-turned-artist Tom Lakenen introduces his scrap metal sculpture park, Lakenenland, on his website (www.lakenenland.com). Lakenenland is situated on Highway M-28 between Munising and Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but forget all your notions about dumpy, overpriced roadside "tourist traps", because this is something altogether different--and thank God for that.

First off, the self-guided tour down the sculpture trail is absolutely free, and you can take said tour on foot, by car, or on a snowmobile or bicycle. Donations are accepted, but never begged for. In fact, the only thing Lakenen insists upon is that his guests stop to write a quick hello in his guest log. There's nobody asking you to buy anything; in fact, there's nothing to buy even if you wanted to! This is one roadside attraction that doesn't exist for the sake of profit; Lakenenland is truly built out of an artist's love, his desire to share his passion with his fellow man, and maybe just a little bit of good old-fashioned Upper Michigan weirdness.

Everything in the park is singularly built by Tom Lakenen himself. Yet the park never feels self-serving or egotistical. Instead, visitors get the distinct feeling that Lakenenland isn't a tribute to Tom Lakenen at all, but to all of his friends, and to every traveler fortunate enough to stumble onto his trail. Lakenen displays an impressive range of sculpting styles and methods in his park: you'll find sculptures that are clever, scary, political, cartoony, intentionally kitschy... and sometimes all of these things at once.