Spooky Magic Town

Join us in November – December for Christmas in Magic Town.

Michael Garman’s Magic Town

Michael Garman’s Magic Town is a 3,000 square-foot miniature city that combines hundreds of intricately detailed sculptures and cityscapes with magical elements to create one of the world’s truly unique attractions.

“It’s a gigantic playground for the mind,” says its creator, Michael Garman. “Part carnival, part dollhouse, part sculpture.” This 3,000 square-foot miniature city was inspired by Garman’s own experiences as a vagabond in the 1950s and 60s. “These are snapshots of my time in Buenos Aires, Santiago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Philadelphia,” Garman explains. “It took me over a million dollars and parts of four decades to pull it from my mind and get the thing built.”

Located in the historic district of Old Colorado City, Magic Town is a 1/6^th scale miniaturized urban neighborhood, complete with dozens of handcrafted buildings, alleyways, and sidewalk scenes that transform before your very eyes. As you look down an alleyway and see the lights dim, notice how the sculptures seem to have moved and an entire new scene magically appears. Holograms heckle you as you pass by, and other visual and sound effects work to transport you into the stories that are revealed in each window and around every corner.

Michael Garman began constructing Magic Town in 1975, and has been adding on to it ever since. He describes it as a “gritty Americana.” He blends humor and honesty to portray a world as familiar as any big-city neighborhood, and as fantastical as “It’s a Small World” by Walt Disney. Take a virtual tour of Magic Town, or join Michael Garman in this 4-minute video presentation.