Welcome and hello

Welcome to the new Blogspot home of the Gnomes Traveling Rod Show, The first traveling museum dedicated to the fishing rod in the world. This has been a lifetime project of mine Jeff Hatton AKA "Gnome". The display started its traveling career with a small display at the Hotchkiss Historical Society's museum in Hotchkiss Colorado in 2002.
 Since that time the display has grown from 20 rods going back to the mid-1800s and the display has evolved into folding shadow boxes containing anywhere from 4 rods to 12 rods per panel and the display has 15 folding shadow boxes covering over 60 linear feet when installed. It covers a time frame from the mid to late 1700's up to the present and this is done with over 170 rods in the display.

Some of the notable installations were; The Idaho State museum for its Guns&Hooks of the west display, The Federation of Fly Fishers International gathering in 2005-2006, The Denver Fly Fishing Show(12+ year run), The Museum of western history in Craig Colorado, At the Redstone Castle in Redstone Colorado, The International Fly tying expo in Jersey, The Catskill Fly Fishing Heritage Center in Roscoe New York, Colorado rod Makers reunion, Southern Rod Makers Gathering,

  Some of the Notable names represented in the display are; George Eaton, William Phinn, Maria Ustonson, William Copeham, John Cheek, John Spear Holroyd, The widow Phinn,  Armstrong, Hardy brothers serial #206 (the oldest Hardy in existence), John Conroy, Charles Murphy, Hiram L. Leonard, John Krider, Fredrick Malleson, Conroy, Bisset&Malleson, Conroy & Bisset, TJ Conroy, NK Waring, Bartleet brothers, John B McHarg, Fred Divine, KOSMIC, Fred E. Thomas, TH Chubb, Evan H Gerrish, Edward VomHofe, Mitchell, Solon Phillipe, E.H.Green, Charles Wheeler, Charles Baillie, Dingee Scribner, Joeseph Dalzell, S.A.Allcock, and the list goes on from there.

 This display shows the evolution of the fishing rod in a way that no other museum does and it is in a chronological timeline, and one of the coolest features is the number of "English School of Bamboo rod making" examples shows how common those rods were for a time span from the late 1700's up to the early 1880s. The early wooden and composite tipped rods are a fascinating study.

I am making the GTRS available to everybody in the form of a series of High definition videos and when done the set will contain between 15 and 20 full-length 1 hour per video with each rod getting 4 minutes plus and up to 10 to 15 minutes depending on the Historical importance of the rod being discussed in the video. Imagine a once a month video magazine about old rods, this will take me over a year to do so I am accepting subscriptions for the series. The DVDs will ship out by the 21st of each month starting with disc 3 in January. The first two-disc set is available right now.

Price is $40.00 for the first set then $25.00 per disc after that, they will only be sold in full sets so this is a commitment to a full series. You can reach me at JLHeggartbronze@gmail.com or by phone @ 970 527 9805. So far the reviews have been very positive and I have people waiting for disc three already.  The picture below shows the Phase 4 expansion @ 10 cases installed at the Fly Fishing Show in New Jersey 3 years ago.