Acid Park -Vollis Simpson’s shop

Vollis Simpson was born in 1919 and is said to have made his first windmill in the the Pacific Theater in World War II to power his Army Air Corps’ company’s washing machine. In his later years, he began to cobble them together with all sorts of silly embellishments and to no particular purpose other than breaking up the sky. He called them windmills, but they became famous as whirligigs. Simpson built them in his shop in the country outside Lucama NC where he was born and spent his entire life, dying there in 2013.
     Simpson’s machine shop was near his home. He spent his retirement in the shop making his “art” — windmills that powered nothing more than entertaining pictures and sculptures. He erected them on steel posts in the field across from the shop. The nickname “Acid Park” likely derives from the bright colors and plentiful reflectors on his windmills, and the attraction that provided for teenagers driving around rural Wilson County looking to pass the time.  Some of the late night attraction waned after Simpson fired 12-gauge birdshot in the direction of a carload of teens at the site.

     By the mid-1990s, Simpson was being recognized as a visionary artist. with major national commissions for his work. He seemed to enjoy his celebrity, and is said to have been a pleasant host when folk visited his shop. He continued to work there into his last years. He finally sold the collection of his major pieces in Acid Park to the city of Wilson which opened a park dedicated to his work, Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, in 2017. The top and bottom photos are from the park in Wilson.

     I rode by his old shop last summer. It now stands abandoned and rusting away. Hi ho…

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