COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– Michael Garman, local legend and Magic Town museum creator, died on Friday, Oct. 8, age 83.

Garman was born in 1938 and spent his childhood in Arlington, Texas. After hiking through Central and South America for over two years, he reached Chile and began honing his skills of sculpture and miniature at the School of Fine Arts in Santiago.

Continuing his journeyman lifestyle across the U.S. after completing his studies, Garman visited such places as Dallas, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Colorado Springs. As he traveled, he found charm in the details of regular human interactions.

In the late 1960s, he settled into an apartment in San Francisco and began studying stage craft, business, illusion and other artistic styles that would continue to round out his artistic career.

In 1971, Garman settled down in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he opened up Magic Town in 1975–a museum where everyone could see what he called his ever-changing, always developing “3,000 square foot dollhouse”.

Magic Town continues to live on with its nearly 500 figures, each hand-crafted by sculpture genius Michael Garman.

To learn more about Garman and his museum of miniatures, click here.