One-Tank Trips: Unique button creations on display at museum
BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - One Tank Trip is back, and this time we drove a couple of hours east down I-20 to visit the Button King Museum.
Step inside and you’ll find out that somebody really loved buttons.
“He was a character all of my life. It was always something going on,” said JD Stevens, son of the late Dalton Stevens, a.k.a. the Button King.
The king grew his button kingdom in the middle of the night.
“You know, he was up all night... insomnia, and had problems sleeping,” said JD.
MORE ONE-TANK TRIPS:
- Have some big fun with small trains
- Try to strike it rich in a real Ga. gold mine
- Take a slide down nature’s waterpark
- Take a roller-coaster ride down a mountain
- Visit one of largest U.S. air museums
- Find out where Cabbage Patch Kids come from
- Explore a tunnel to nowhere at S.C. park
To the time, JD’s dad thought: let me sew buttons on my suit.
After doing that, he wondered: “What else can I put buttons on?” Dalton added thousands of buttons to instruments, a coffin, his car, and even his toilet.
“He enjoyed himself the last part of his life, he did,” said JD.
The Button King’s ion for buttons made him famous, and he appeared on several talk shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
About 15 years ago, he realized his work belonged in a museum.
“I tried to talk him out of the museum part, because I thought that threw people off, and it does in a lot of cases because they don’t expect what they see here,” said JD.
Even though the Button King is gone now, his legacy remains.
“He wanted it kept open,” said JD.
Today, his son is making sure the button kingdom doesn’t fall.
The Button King Museum is open every day from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. It’s a self-guided tour, and it’s free to go.
Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
