Lakenenland

A rebar alligator, space creatures and a pig on an old-fashioned bicycle line a wooded trail beside M-28 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, all welded from scrap by a boilermaker who had no art training. Tom Lakenen began making sculptures in his garage in the evenings and between construction jobs, according to the SPACES Archives, and put them in his front yard until his output outgrew it and he ran into disputes with Chocolay Township officials. In 2003 he bought a 37-acre parcel about 15 miles east of Marquette, across the road from Lake Superior, and moved the sculptures there. Country Lines magazine reported in 2016 that he paid for the park himself, apart from a donation from a local doctor, and cleared the land and built its roads on his own.

SPACES puts the number of works at about 100, including space creatures, spiders, tigers, dragons, a mermaid and a pink elephant with a child-sized picnic table on its back. It also records a memorial to the victims of 9/11 and tributes to the U.S. Marines, Michigan loggers and union ironworkers, along with some works with a political tone. Visitors can walk the paths or drive through. The park's website adds a pavilion, picnic ground, two fishing ponds and a playground, and says the park is free and open 24 hours a day. SPACES notes that in 2011 the local business community named Lakenen the Township's Citizen of the Year.