Welcome to the Parago Circus website and thanks for visiting. We hope you enjoy your time here and come back often.

Pronounced (Pear-ago) my father chose the name because it was a shortened interpretation of Paragon making the name six letters long, the same as circus, which made it easy to balance when painted on the side of a wagon.

Dad fell in love with the American railroad circus as a boy of six when his dad took him to a circus for the very first time. As the story went, my dad was so excited about the wagons and tents that he wouldn't leave until my grandfather promised to build him a toy wagon when they got home. Knowing both my grandfather and father, I have no doubt that must have been an epic battle of "the irresistible force meeting an immovable object". Anyway, grandfather did make him a couple of toy wagons and that set my father on a life long endeavor of creation to build his own circus - even if only in miniature.

Starting in 1935 and ending just a couple of years before his passing, my dad built and rebuilt his circus over and over. After I came along, I would see him build beautiful wagons, and then see where he had cut them in half because “they just weren’t any good”, but he wanted to reuse some piece on the next creation. Even though he was not always happy with his work, my dad created a historical masterpiece accurately depicting a time in American history which is quickly fading from our collective memory.

As times, feelings, and values have changed, the American railroad circus has lost much of its former glitter and glory, but its proper and rightful place in history shouldn’t be forgotten. Certainly, many of the sideshow banners and circus acts now appear racist, abusive, insensitive and perhaps even cruel, but that judgment applies our values and sensibilities to a totally different time. Its important that what was beautiful and magical, as well as what was dark and sinister, about the American railroad circus be remembered accurately for what it was and the time in which it thrived.

I harbor two goals for this website. First, I hope you enjoy looking at these little works of art. I certainly have, from when I was just a little boy to now that I get senior discounts. Secondly, perhaps some visitor will open a doorway to the right arrangement which will bring my father’s circus out of storage and into public display.