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Source of Whimsy M
Paul Ruben makes a second stop in Virgina, this time to speak to Mark Cline, founder of Enchanted Castle....
ark Cline, the 59-year-old founder of Enchanted Castle Studios in Natural Bridge, Virginia, has been spreading joy with his whimsical fibreglass figures for nearly 40 years. His wife, Sherry, manages the Studio’s business side when not attending to their two daughters. In his spare time he also composes comic books and builds parade floats. His talents have been sought after by parks such as Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags America, Six Flags Over Georgia, Hersheypark, and Dutch Wonderland, who are among his clients. So is Spash Zone in Wildwood, New Jersey, Jellystone Park campgrounds, South of the Border, Magic Forest, and Putt-Putt miniature golf courses. He’s created gargoyles for a castle in Austria, and projects for clients as far away as Lebanon and Panama.
Making props
Since he was 19 years old, Cline has been creating fibreglass figures. His Enchanted Castle Studios creations populate roadside attractions throughout the country. He is the only person in the world to build two full-size replicas of Stonehenge. That’s impressive since it took the Neolithic people 1,500 years to build one. The first is called “Foamhenge,” now in Centreville, Virginia. In 2012 he was commissioned to build a second called “Bamahenge.” Assembled in Josephine, Alabama, it is for billionaire client George Barber. Barber owns Barber motorsports as well as the worlds largest motorcycle museum in Leeds, Alabama.
Recently he opened his own quirky roadside park, Dinosaur Kingdom II. For more than 20 years, he has hosted “Haunting Tales,” a nightly ghost tour in Lexington, Virginia.
Roadside attractions such as South of the Border in Hamer, South Carolina, display his fibreglass creations. A variety of Muffler Man figures stand proudly in Tulsa,
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Oklahoma, Springfield, Missouri, and at Magic Forest in Lake George, New York. The one is Tulsa is outside a gift shop and is called Buck Atom – The Space Cowboy. “It wasn’t so much that I wanted to be a sculptor so to speak or an artist,” explains Cline. “I think I really wanted to be an entertainer. You know, I would watch these old TV shows, like the Andy Griffith show. I learned how to imitate Barney Fife. I became these characters and learned at an early age I needed props to go with these characters, so I started making the props.” “I started out here in Virginia. I do a lot of work down in Virginia Beach. Foamhenge is up in Cox Farms. It
It wasn’t
so much that I wanted to be a sculptor or an artist. I think I wanted to be an entertainer.
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