Clarence and Grace Woolsey were working as farmhands in the area of Lincoln, Iowa, when they made their first assemblages in 1961, using bottle caps they had accumulated. For the next ten years, the husband and wife created at least two hundred sculptures: buildings, animals, vehicles, and fantasy figures resembling rabbits. The Woolseys began displaying their art in a bottle cap menagerie they called the World’s Largest Pioneer Caparena and charged visitors a 25-cent admission fee. After a time, lack of public interest discouraged the couple, however, and they abandoned this avocation, placing the sculptures in a barn on Grace’s brother’s farm. Twenty years later, their sculptures resurfaced when the farm was auctioned.