Ladies and gentlemen, step right this way! Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey present The Greatest Show on Earth!

The six Ringling brothers were famous for their circus in the early part of the 20th century, and it made at least one of them, John Ringling, a very rich man.

John Ringling had a 60 acre estate in Sarasota as far back as the 1920s and on his estate you can now find – among other things – the Ringling Brothers circus museum.

The best circus exhibit at the museum is a miniature-scale model of a complete circus, including the circus train. This model was built by one man and it took him 50 years.

The attention to detail is simply incredible. According to the accompanying narrative, the model-maker went so far as to put miniature dollar bills in a miniature cash register inside the ticket booth where it can’t be seen by viewers of the model.

Here’s the street scene and the Side Show alley.

Just look at the care that was taken to depict the most minute detail.

The big top was especially incredible.

We got so excited about the circus that we decided to try out.

Dale wants to be a bare-back acrobat. I’m going to be a lion-tamer.

But first, I have a few things to work out with the tigers.