Matchstick Marvels Museum

If you ever get anywhere near Gladbrook, Iowa, find the time to stop and visit the Matchstick Marvels Museum.  Patrick Acton has created these marvels out of ordinary matchsticks. Here are photos of some of his creations with some of the pertinent facts.

The first creation he made was in 1977 and it was a little church using 500 matchsticks which took him a little over a week to complete.  He gave it as a gift to his neighbors for Christmas that year.

His second model built in 1978. Oldest on display and used 5,000 matchsticks.

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USS Challenger built in 1997 with over 200,000 matchsticks taking over 1,000 hours.
Dedicated to those who lost their lives when it exploded on January 28, 1986.

Conestoga wagon built in 1993 with 20,000 matchsticks.

Built with 15,000 matchsticks.  Each feather was made individually and glued in place one at a time.  It has a wing span of 4 ft.  It was finished in 2004.

Mars Rover Perseverance-full size 10 ft long, 4 ft wide and 7 ft high.
Used 880,000 matchsticks and 28 gallons of wood glue.
Finished in March 2020 but still working on finer details. It is also interactive

USS Nimitz built in 1994 is 1/150th scale.  It is 6 ft long, took 400 hours and used
40,000 matchsticks.

Wright Brothers Flyer built in 1994 with 10,000 matchsticks.  It has a wingspan of 5 ft and is 1/8 scale.

US Capitol Building took 2 years to build, using 478,000 matchsticks and 10 gallons of carpenter glue.
It is 1/65 scale, 12 ft long, and 5.5 ft high.  The dome alone used 100,000 matchsticks.

Detail of the Capitol

Dome detail

He has done so many more that it would make this post so long.  But I wanted to share the ones that I was most impressed with at the museum.  Some of his creations are on display all over the world with Ripley's Believe It or Not..

Don't miss this cool museum in Gladbrook Iowa.  

matchstickmarvels.com