CARPIO — One's first impression when walking in the door is, "Wow, this is incredible!"
It’s the Des Lacs Valley Toy Museum in Carpio and is one of only a handful of toy museums across the state of North Dakota. It’s been in the works for more than two years and is now ready for tours.
The more than 7,000 toys on the shelves are not for sale, but rather to show like any other museum would show items. Tours are welcome by appointment only at this time, but will be expanded as more items are displayed to complete the collection.
“It’s a unique attraction,”says co-owner Kirk Norlin. “There’s a lot of custom built pieces in here.”
According to Norlin, there are only three other places like the toy museum in North Dakota. One is at Pioneer Village in Kenmare, one is in Devils Lake and one is in Beulah. There are about 30 in the United States with the National Farm Toy Museum located in Dyersville, Iowa.
“There’s a lot more custom-built pieces and more high-end stuff here,” Norlin says of the museums in North Dakota. “I have nine pieces of a gold 1/64th set. There are only four sets and I have one of those sets.”
Co-owner Pete Thorp calls it a gift and a curse at the same time. Norlin’s collection is rare and the pieces sell high at auction, but the gift is in giving to charity and owning such an impressive display.
A third co-owner, Curtis Estvold, owns most of the toys in the museum, including an impressive line of John Deere products. Estvold wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Thorp said they first started kicking around the idea of a toy museum of their own on their way back from the national toy show in Dyersville. “That’s when we broached the subject,” Thorp said.
According to Norlin, the most agonizing part of the entire process was waiting for contractors to get the building set up.
The building is a 30x60 wood-frame building that used to be the Kenmare One Stop store.
When One Stop owner Penny Sigloh retired, she announced the sale of the building and Thorp quickly made the purchase in the spring of 2019.
Huwe the House Mover transported the building the 25 miles from Kenmare to Carpio and it was staged in the Cenex parking lot until work began in the summer of 2020.
By Christmas season of 2020, they were able to have an impromptu opening according to Thorp.
“Three weeks before Christmas, the weather was really nice and it worked out well,” Thorp said. “We had people coming from all over including Grafton, Watford City, Bismarck, Washburn, and Bottineau. People got a sneak preview.”
He added most of those guests made purchases, the only time thus far that has happened.
Thorp explained that it was set up that way because they were unable to attend a toy show in Thief River Falls, Minn., because of COVID restrictions. As a result, they made up some lost revenue from the cancelled Minnesota show.
“In August 2020, we picked up shelving from Kmart in Minot,” Thorp said. “It was a lot of work to get it set up.”
The museum has 1/16th, 1/8th, 1/12th, 1/16th, 1/32nd, 1/64th and 1/43rd scale models with a diverse set of brand names, some of which are common in Europe but not the United States.
With several thousand pieces, Norlin and Thorp say there are hundreds, literally hundreds of items they are proud to have and neither of them can narrow it down to an absolute favorite.
“My personal decision is 99 percent John Deere,” Thorp said. “I’ve always been partial to Deere, and I like the older stuff from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.”
Thorp added, however, that he has a custom-made No. 3 Co-op F10 Farmhand with a loader.
It’s the same tractor he operated when he was a kid. He is also partial to a Wishek disc harrow, a piece that he helped coordinate the making of by Jim Buske of Oakes.
It’s evident Norlin likes the smaller toys that include several brands.
“I like the 1/64th and 1/16th Oliver,” he said. “I just like Oliver memorabilia, and it’s not for sale. It’s my personal collection.”
Norlin also talks highly of a 1/64th scale Big Bud 525 model.
“It’s a prototype of a production model and I have one,” he says of the primer gray tractor. “There’s several I could pick out, but it’s really neat having a prototype.”
Their collections were recently bolstered by the closure of two museums in North Dakota. First, they obtained about half the collection that was owned by Rose Eymann of Kenmare. It was her husband Vern’s collection. Mr. Eymann passed away in 2014. The other half of the collection is located at Pioneer Village in Kenmare.
Norlin added Mrs. Eymann had some duplicates that Pioneer Village couldn’t accommodate so that made it easier for them to obtain a number of pieces.
A museum at the Toy Farmer magazine building in LaMoure was also recently closed. A dispersal sale is coming up Feb. 18 and 19 in Wakonda, S.D., in the extreme southeastern part of the state. The auction will be conducted by Gerard Auction of Aurora, Neb.
“It will be online and in person,” Thorp said. “We’re going. There’s a few pieces we want to get.”
There’s no doubt, this museum is unique, but there’s one more twist for these three toy enthusiasts. Norlin says they have a buyer who lives in the Netherlands. He visited the United States in 2019 and made some purchases.
“So there you go, we have tractors across the pond,” Thorp said.
Both men are employed by Gooseneck Implement. Thorp works at the Kenmare branch and Norlin works in Minot.
Thorp said people interested in tours may call or text him at (701) 833-8721. Norlin provided his number as well, but said he’d prefer texts because he is often on a work phone at Gooseneck and wouldn’t be able to answer immediately. Norlin may be reached by text at (701) 721-9295.
The farm-toy duo is often seen at regional toy shows. They just finished the Triple T Toy Show in Minot in which 650 people attended. They have shows coming up in Langdon and Bismarck.
The goal of the Des Lacs Valley Toy Museum is showcase the collection to the touring public and to hang out and enjoy the collection themselves.
“If you really want to see all this, it would take two or three hours,” Thorp said. “Everybody has different tastes and that’s what makes it so much fun.”
