Only after retirement in 1987 did former Ames resident, Arthur Tom Wetteland, turn to making scale model replicas and extraordinary scroll-work clocks.  Trained as a watchmaker in Kansas City, he acquired the patience and skill to work on small-scale objects.  After working 20 years as a jeweler in Cedar Rapids and Jewell, Tom again worked in Ames, this time maintaining autoclaves and small equipment at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

After visiting the Bily Clock Museum in Spillville, Iowa, Tom became interested in doing intricate scroll work.  His home workshop was equipped with carving knives, a scroll and band saw, two table saws, sanders, and a goodly supply of walnut, birch and oak boards.  Detailed plans for many of the models were ordered from England.  After he mastered the art of making wheels, rims and hubs, the projects became easier.  The buckboard, farm wagon, stagecoach and Conestoga wagon are among his early works.  The buckboard remained his all-time favorite.  His job as deliveryman for Woodland Dairy probably inspired the milk wagon model.  The horse-drawn hearse is an obvious reference to the one used by the Adams Funeral Home.