Sculptor Home & Studio

The Ziolkowski Family Life Museum, centered on the Family’s original log home, tells the behind-the-scenes story of how Korczak and Ruth Ziolkowski, and their 10 children, managed life in a remote setting without infrastructure, while making progress on a monumental task. Located behind the log home, the Sculptor’s Studio shares with visitors Korczak’s life in Connecticut before embarking on this massive project, along with his other artistic endeavors and accomplishments while working on the mountain.

The Log Home

Korczak and Ruth lived in a tent for the first seven months of the project. He hand cut trees for a log cabin and studio home that was so well-built that it remains as part of the visito's complex to this day. Korczak used log beams 70 feet long and built a 30-foot skylight into the home, to see the Mountain. He and Ruth cleared timber and built the first roads to the studio home and to the Mountain – which was no small feat. Ruth did all the peeling and chinking of the logs for the home. This original log home or “Big Room” as it is lovingly referred to by the Korczak and Ruth’s descendants, is still used for family functions. For example, many Christmas dinners have been celebrated in this room for over 71 years!  Always one to think ahead, in anticipation of a time when the curious would come to visit and observe the progress at the Mountain, Korczak filled the home with his collection of antiques from his West Hartford, Connecticut home and original works of sculpture. The Ziolkowski log home is open to visitors. Antiques featured in the Big Room include a Marie Antoinette mirror, Louis the 16th chairs, and the glass table that Korczak made from a four legged piano. The sculptor's home features a collection of original pieces created by Korczak himself; comprising of the horse's head that he carved in 9 days, Old Pagan, Polish Eagle, and many people he admired.

The Sculptor's Studio

Within the Sculptor’s Studio, which Korczak and Ruth built in 1962, visitors experience an eclectic mix of work and narratives. A variety of wood, bronze, marble and casts tell the stories of projects that Korczak developed in the winter months when he could not work on the Mountain. One highlight of the Studio is the wooden toolbox that Korczak made when he was just 18. Simple, functional, and unadorned, this item represents a young artist who was readying his tools for a lifetime of creation, and, unbeknownst to him at that time, readying himself for taking on a carving project of an unprecedented scale. Surrounding the toolbox is a large mix of his completed works alongside others that were in progress at the time of his passing 1982.

Other notable items in the Studio include an original Concord Stagecoach that Korczak acquired in exchange for select artworks, and drums and regalia that call back to his involvement in the Noah Webster Fife and Drum and Corps, a group of young folks who made the journey from Connecticut to Hill City.