Finding His Gift and Giving It Away: The Story of Tom Rhodes and Warsaw’s Enchanted Forest
For countless families in the Northern Neck, a walk through Warsaw’s Enchanted Forest is more than a stroll in the woods. It’s a tradition. It’s nostalgia. It’s wonder around every bend of the trail.
And at the heart of it all is Tom Rhodes.
At 87 years old, Tom is still showing up, still tending the trails, still maintaining the carvings he began more than twenty years ago, and still delighting in the joy this unusual little forest has brought to children and adults alike. What began as a personal project on a wooded piece of land has become one of Warsaw’s most beloved hidden treasures.
Tom and his wife, Kay, came to the Northern Neck in 1969 when Tom was transferred here as highway resident engineer for the four counties and six incorporated towns. Originally from the Falls Church area, Tom studied at Bridgewater College (where he met his beloved wife of 63 years) before graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in civil engineering. He spent 22 years serving the region before retiring in 1991.
Somewhere along the way, though, the Northern Neck became far more than just the place where he worked.
“It’s a simpler way of life here,” Tom said. “Down-to-earth, caring people.”
Tom’s appreciation for the Northern Neck runs deep. So does his gratitude for the outdoors. Ask Tom what he loves most about being in the forest, and his answer comes quickly and with the kind of clarity that only comes from someone who has truly spent time paying attention.
“You can’t get too much of nature,” he said. And then, in a line that feels as if it could be carved into one of the trees themselves, he added, “here is where I can lose my mind and find my soul.”
Tom bought the 11.5-acre property in 1986. At first, he considered subdividing it, but after conversations with developers, he realized he didn’t want the kind of project they had in mind. He wanted the land to become something he could be proud of. Eventually, he and Kay decided to keep it for themselves, and Tom began shaping it into something altogether different.
An amateur woodcarver since boyhood, Tom had long enjoyed making things with his hands. His carving roots go all the way back to Cub Scouts, when a small project sparked a lifelong hobby. Over the years, he has carved all sorts of things—walking sticks, toothpicks, plaques, even sweet potatoes—but golf balls became one of his signature creations. He estimates he has carved more than 1,200 of them, often giving them away to people he felt “needed a lift” or to anyone he spotted doing a random act of kindness.
That generous spirit helps explain the Enchanted Forest, too.
In 2004, Tom carved the first tree spirits near the road. Inspired by old folklore that some ancient cultures believed every tree held a spirit inside it—the origin of our modern-day habit to “knock on wood” for luck—he began coaxing faces from the trunks. Visitors noticed. Children were intrigued. People encouraged him to keep going. By 2006, he had settled into a rhythm of carving about seven new ones a year.
And what started with wood spirits soon grew into much more.
Kids began making requests, which is why so many of the carvings became cartoon characters and whimsical figures. Tom estimates that about three-fourths of them came from children’s suggestions. Today, there are 113 carvings scattered throughout the forest, each one tucked along trails he cleared himself through roughly three acres of the property. Over the years, he has lost around 30 to storms, insects, and time—but he continues to repair, rebuild, and care for what remains.
Of course, the forest is never really finished.
Trees fall. Weather wears things down. Insects and rot take their toll. Tom has lost around 30 carvings over the years, and keeping the forest up requires steady, patient work. He still comes out regularly—often close to seven days a week for a couple of hours at a time—to pick up sticks, wash carvings, repaint them, trim back healing bark, and make repairs as needed.
But he doesn’t speak of it like a burden. He speaks of it like someone tending old friends.
“As long as it’s fun,” he said, he plans to keep maintaining it. “I just like being in the woods, and I like seeing my friends in the trees.”
There’s something especially moving about the way Tom talks about why he does all this. The carvings are creative and charming, yes. They delight children. They spark memories. They turn an ordinary walk into a scavenger hunt of wonder. But for Tom, they also reflect something deeper.
“One of the purposes in life is to find your gift and give it away,” he said.
That simple sentence may be the clearest window into who he is.
He has lived it not only through the Enchanted Forest, but through the golf balls and walking sticks he has handed out over the years, and through the 54 mission trips he took before age and illness finally forced him to slow down. On those trips—spanning places like Tanzania, Kenya, Haiti, Honduras, and Jamaica—Tom often helped build shelters and would sometimes teach locals to carve, sharing both tools and knowledge along the way.
Even now, after all these years, the giving continues here in Warsaw, one tree at a time.
Tom’s forest has been shaped by the community, too. Families have returned year after year. Children who once wandered the trails with wide eyes now come back as adults, bringing new generations with them. Suggestions from visitors have helped inspire many of the carvings. The name “Enchanted Forest” itself was not something Tom created—it’s simply what people began calling it, and the name stuck.
That feels fitting. Because places like this are not manufactured. They grow. They are named by the affection people feel for them.
Tom may be the creator of the Enchanted Forest, but in many ways, the forest has become a shared piece of life in Warsaw—a place where nature, creativity, generosity, and memory all meet beneath the trees.
And maybe that is why it matters so much.
In a world that often feels rushed, commercial, and loud, Tom Rhodes quietly made something lasting. Something joyful. Something free. Something that asks people to slow down, wander a little, and see wonder in the woods.
Not many people could do that.
Then again, not many people would.
At Bay River Realty, stories like his are a big part of why we love calling the Northern Neck home.