Earlier this year, Homer Daehn vacated his downtown studio, moving it — along with the carousel horse — into a pole shed outside of town. His former studio is occupied today by the Blue Sky store, which sells some of his pieces.

"I never thought I was going to leave, because I liked it so much," Daehn said. "Leaving it was very difficult."

Daehn bought his new studio on Lehman Road about three years ago. Downtown bustle has given way to views of sunsets caressing the rolling hills southeast of Baraboo. "It’s really a nice spot," Daehn said.

Daehn came to Baraboo in 1991 to work on a bandwagon at Circus World Museum, after spending four years of pestering the staff looking for work. He boasted an impressive resume of working with wood that includes stints repairing and refinishing furniture, owning furniture stores and serving as a ship’s carpenter.

It all started when his sister asked him to carve a coat button when he was a kid, and soon Daehn was taking classes in drawing and woodworking.

"You start fooling around with it," Daehn said. "I kind of backed into the whole thing."

The Oshkosh native went on to fix up 27 wagons as a private contractor for Circus World. In refurbishing a wagon, he gets pictures of its original look, then makes a clay mold that simulates the piece he’s looking to create. Once he’s satisfied that he got it right, Daehn makes that same piece out of wood. An ongoing project has been a Little Red Riding Hood wagon built in the 1880s, a circus wagon owned by a collector — and Circus World volunteer — from New York.

Daehn enjoys the creative process of his work, but the real payoff comes when his carvings move people. He recalled showing legendary circus promoter Chappie Fox, then living at St. Clare Meadows Care Center, a carving that depicts Fox stroking a team of horses. A tear welled in Fox’s eye as he said, "Beautiful."

"I never dreamed when I started working in wood that I would have that kind of reaction," Daehn said. "You spend a lot of hours doing it, and sometimes you wonder about your sanity, but when you get a reaction like that, there’s no monetary value for that."

Daehn recalls being the only tenant above the Corner on Wisconsin store on Oak. Years later, the building’s owners refurbished the upstairs level and turned it into a complex of shops. Daehn doesn’t get as many visitors in the country as he did downtown, which helps him stay productive. In his former studio, he found himself fielding requests from kids who wanted to ride the carousel horse.

"People are sad that I’m not there. But they’re glad I have this wonderful place," Daehn said. "I’m not much for looking back ever."