Welcome to Pop's Gift Shop.
No, you can't buy that one!
Dennis "Pop" Ryan lives in a house built at Mom and Pop RV Park. Tiny toys he collected while traveling the world when he was in the United States Air Force fill cabinets in the house. His living room is crowded with a mountain scene he's creating for his outdoor model railroad that weaves through a section of the complex.
Across the G-scale tracks from his home is his business office. That, too, is filled with thousands of tiny handmade lead figurines in a dusty corner of the building.
Ryan has been a Farmington business owner for more than 20 years. He rents RV space to tourists at his park at 901 Illinois Ave. And he has a reputation among toy railroad collectors for crafting and selling hard-to-get figurines.
"Word got out that I could make them, and people come to see me," he said.
To make his figures, Ryan purchases old toy figures, mainly from Europe, and then uses them to create a mold. He fills the mold with a lead-based alloy and hand paints the figures.
Occasionally, he makes pieces for interested buyers who tracked down his phone number, as the 81-year-old doesn't use computers. Some of the figurines he sells for $4 a pop at the shop.
"If I really like it, I don't want to sell it," he said. "Most of it is not for sale."
The figurines come alive in glass cases inside the toy shop.
Ryan placed the inch-tall human replicas intricately together to make war, wedding and dance scenes. He walks through the shop and proudly watches them every day.
"Up here we have a hoedown," Ryan said of one of the scenes he created. "Look how happy they are."
A history buff, many of Ryan's dioramas depict actual scenes from history.
He has a scene of King Charles I of England being executed in 1649. Other scenes show Japanese samurai, a French Cavalry, a bank robbery, a hanging and the German army in the midst of a winter assault in World War II.
He also has a 10-foot long World War II-era freight ship packed with lead boatmen doing ship work.
"Most models like this are dead," he said. "This one's alive."
Ryan and his wife, Frances, first passed through Farmington in the early 1980s. They were traveling on a four-and-a-half year RV trip across the county.
They stopped at what eventually became their own park. Back then, the city of Farmington owned and operated it.
The Ryans liked Farmington so much they asked the city if they could lease the land and take over the park. They had moved on to Sacramento, Calif., when the city called and said they could sign the lease.
"I was here the next day," Ryan said. "I was tired of driving that motor home. Four and a half years of sightseeing, I wanted to do something different.
"Plus there's good weather, no earthquakes, no floods, no hurricanes and no tornadoes."
They leased the RV park from the city, renamed it, built a house on the property and made a life. Frances passed away in September.
Technically, the RV park is still on city property, said Mary Holton, the community development director for Farmington. Every few years, Ryan renews his lease.
Mom and Pop RV Park has been a licensed business since 1987 and Ryan's Gift Shop has had a business license since 1990, according to city documents.
"He's very unique and very talented," said Danny Farrow, the president of the San Juan Large Scalers, a club for G-scale railroad enthusiasts. Ryan was an original member of the club. "He'll pretty much do anything."
Ryan has several additions planned for the park. First, he's finishing the model railroad.
The track weaves through several time periods, beginning with the homestead days. Then the train enters the 1890s, then drives into the industrial revolution and passes a power plant, movie theater and beer factory. He's adding a mountain and ranching scene at the end of the tracks.
"I'm going to make a mountain, 100 buffalo and 100 longhorn cattle," he said.
After the railroad is complete, he has his sights on the massive model plane.
"I've been wanting to do this for years, but I don't know if I'll ever get to it," he said. "I want to build a 21-foot long Japanese aircraft carrier. Unless something else comes up."
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Information from: The Daily Times, http://www.daily-times.com
