Mark Cline, whose Haunted Monster Museum at Natural Bridge burned down in April, opened his first monster museum in Natural Bridge, has work all over the United States and beyond. In 2008, he appeared in ads as part of the “Virginia is for Lovers” campaign. He is currently working on entryway displays for the water park Splash Zone, and is making a pilot for a reality show where he would travel around Virginia creating iconic sculptures for small towns.
Given the fire – and previous ones to his work – how about 10 reasons to love Mark Cline:
10. The biggest “cast iron” skillet in town hangs outside of Northwest Hardware on Williamson Road.
9. Thanks to Cline, Batman and Spiderman stood in wait of justice atop the Lexington Courthouse in 2008.
8. His life-size herd of five elephants went up in Waynesboro in 2009.
7. In 2010, fi ve full-sized fi berglass horses appeared on the roof of the Masonic Th eatre in Clift on Forge.
6. In 2011, he erected a set of gigantic giant hands in Daleville, on a hill behind the Goodwill, with a truck that marketed “Jack’s Giant Killing Service.” The county of Botetourt requested its immediate removal.
5. A life-size Russian submarine floated by in Lake Tams, at Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton for this year’s April Fools Day prank.
4. Dinosaurland, (currently closed due to fire) at Natural Bridge, is where T-Rex dangled a Union soldier from his teeth. (Rex is currently chomping on a giant hotdog at a fast food restaurant.)
3. Professor Cline’s Haunted Monster Museum at Natural Bridge went up in 2002 and burned on April 16. There are currently no plans to rebuild.
2. Foamhenge (14 foot tall replica of Stonehenge) was installed as an April Fool’s Day joke on a hill off of Route 11 in Natural Bridge, in 2004. It remains a FREE roadside attraction.
1. He put King Kong out on the balcony of the Taubman Museum in 2012 (the corresponding exhibit of Cline’s work broke attendance records.)
For more about Cline, visit enchantedcastlestudios.com.
