Fun Fact: Before Matchstick Marvels Museum opened in Gladbrook in 2003, Patrick traveled several times a year with his matchstick art throughout the Midwest, touring various states for venues that included schools, libraries, museums, private businesses, town festivals, art shows, civic groups, woodworking and craft shows.
Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center
Perfect entertainment for families and groups of all sizes!
Come and see the best matchstick models in the world! Acton has created dozens of wooden models and sculptures made exclusively of ordinary wooden matchsticks. He has used millions of matchsticks and hundreds of gallons of glue to create models that are highly detailed and painstakingly scaled. Also at the Center, you will see drawings and plans for many of the models, plus tools used in construction, and two video documentaries of Acton’s unusual hobby.
Many models have historical significance, such as large-scaled models of the USS Iowa battleship, the space shuttle Challenger, the Wright Brothers’ Flyer, and the United States Capitol, which measures 12 feet long.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not has purchased dozens of Acton’s matchstick models for their museums throughout the world, including Mexico City, Jakarta, Copenhagen, and Sidney, Australia. In the United States, they are displayed in Branson, New Orleans, Key West, St Augustine, Gatlinburg, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and others.
Fun Fact: The first case of headless matchsticks Patrick bought from Ohio Match Company in 1986 contained about 100,000 matches for only $13. The cost of 100,000 sticks in 2017, the last year Patrick ordered matchsticks, was $210.
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Matchstick Marvels, 319 2nd Street, Gladbrook, IA
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