after the sawmill portion, takes the bet- ter part of a day. Since Walter and Larry make every piece by hand, they often make a lot of parts at the same time and store them on a parts rack, which saves time later. This allows Walter and Larry to make about four chairs per day. Wal- ter usually does the turning, and Larry usually operates the table and band saws. Walter explains when they make


chairs, the dowels in the chairs are dry, but the posts are not completely dry. As the posts dry and shrink, the dowels are held tightly within the posts. “You can’t take it apart without saw-


ing it,” Walter says. “You want it to stay together.” Over the years they’ve had to put


their creativity and ingenuity to good use.


In the early 1990s, they made their


first giant rocking chair at the request of a furniture store owner in Ozark, Mo. “I ain’t never made one, but I guess I


could try,” Walter said. They had to figure out how to con-


struct a makeshift lathe, but were able to produce a giant chair with 7-inch diame- ter posts. Afterward, they built a lathe specifically for that chair size, since they figured they’d be making more of them. The chairs, which weigh around 600 pounds, often are purchased for com- mercial properties or by the Corn Maze Association of America. “I enjoy challenge things, things peo-


ple don’t know how to make,” Walter says.


The family says their chairs have


been sold to customers in nearly every state in the United States, to a customer in Canada, and to the prime minister of the Dominican Republic. Another famous customer was the


late country singer George Jones, who came to the shop after ordering a rock- ing chair. The family has a copy of the July 3, 2008, edition of the White River Current newspaper covering the event.


OPPOSITE PAGE: (Clockwise from top) Cedar chips fly as Walter Hagan works on a lathe in his shop. • An oak rocking chair. • A classic cedar bench ready to hang from a tree. • Chairs sit in Hagan Rockers shop near Dolph. • Walter Hagan, 68, sands a piece of cedar.


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