Carving through obstacles
SUBMITTED BY COURTNEY LANTZ
Chris Lantz said he ran inside the camper to save some of his equipment while it was still burning.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Everything was packed into their camper and ready to go, just a few hours before Chris Lantz, his wife, Courtney, and their three children were about to depart for the Nodaway County Fair.
That’s when one of their daughters pointed out the window of their house at the camper.
“Uh oh mama.”
The camper, with most of their day-to-day possessions needed for the months they spend on the road as part of Chris’ Extreme Sculpting business, was on fire.
They would learn later it was likely caused by a faulty propane tank attached to a refrigerator.
But in the moment, Chris was more concerned about what was left in the camper.
For more than a decade, Chris has made his living through Extreme Sculpting, using chainsaws to sculpt wood at competitions, for special orders and at fairs across the country like the one in Maryville.
“I ran back in there and threw as much things out as I could,” he told The Forum on Thursday. “I can’t afford to lose everything I worked the last 14 years for.”
Chris said his journey into chainsaw carving started before he was born, when his father and two uncles started attending church and met a man who taught them to carve with chainsaws. After watching them his whole life, he moved out of the house at 19 with “a trash bag full of clothes, a $20 bill and a pack of cigarettes,” and moved to an abandoned flea market in Columbus, Georgia. After a week and a half sleeping there, he got a hold of a chainsaw, carved a bear, and sold it.
“And since then, I gave my life to Jesus and I’ve been chainsaw-carving for almost 14 years,” he said.
He and his young family have crisscrossed the country, carving mostly animals, like bears, owls and wolves, Chris said, spending several months a year living out of their RV when they aren’t at their home in Georgia.
And when the camper caught fire, with so many of their possessions going up in smoke, they initially thought their latest trip would have to be canceled. But Courtney said to give it a few hours.
After posting on Facebook, neighbors, friends and people they didn’t even know brought clothes, food and other items they would need. And that’s when they decided they had to make the trip.
“(Chris) shook the man’s hand that hired him for this before they had a contract and said, well, let’s just shake hands,” she told The Forum. “And that meant something to us.”
The family loaded up what they had the next morning into another vehicle, packed with donated items and wearing borrowed clothes, and set out for Maryville.
“Rarely does anybody keep their word anymore,” Chris added. “And I feel like your word is all you got, really. Especially in this day and age, no one’s good for it, you know? And when I shook Jeremy (Walker)’s hand, I had every intention on coming. And he told me after the camper burned, ‘if you guys can’t make it, I understand,’ and we tried our hardest.
“And here we are.”
SUBMITTED BY COURTNEY LANTZ
The camper the Lantz family was going to take to Maryville burned just minutes before they left, destroying many of their possessions.
GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
Chris Lantz, owner of Extreme Sculpting, uses a chainsaw to carve a bear out of wood at the Nodaway County Fair on Thursday.
