The Interesting Art of William Paul Marlette

Many, have asked about the 'Town Of Dry Gulch', i.e. What is it?  Who built it? What was it built for? 

 

To be as succinct as possible, The Town of Dry Gulch was an Old Western Gem Mining Town (circa 1849 Gold Rush), which I alone built as an effort to gently prod the children of today's gaming, cell phone, hi-tech world, back to the 'OLD FASHIONED' hands-on approach of having fun.  

 

The property contained a two story A Frame Store that was filled with my art and every imaginable gemstone and mineral.  Next to the main store was a General store for kids, which featured fossils. arrowheads, beads, mineral specimens, and a variety of nick-nack souvenirs. We also featured: a spring fed water trough, a fully functional outdoor railroad and miniature town, a building where the old miner, Fuzzy lived, and a Western Museum and BBQ Pavilion were built on the property.  There were six acres of manicured mining trails that led to over a million types of gemstones, which included: quartz crystals, fossils, arrowheads, gold, silver, and copper nuggets.  All for the finding and keeping!

 

There were several locations in two different states which spanned a period of some 32 years.  The most recent was a fifteen year stint on 13 acres of property in Findley Lake, NY.

 

Every summer season, Dry Gulch would see around 4,000 kids from both field trips and  private events. This went on each and every year for a total of 32 years !

 

We literally raised a generation of over 100,000 munchkins, who (for the most part) are now grown with children of their own!  We planted a seed to redefine FUN, and we have been told that we succeeded... Big Time!