Inola Castings was founded in 1990 by George Freeman. It was his dream to start a casting company and create his own designs as well as help others create their designs. Many people have wondered how he got started in this industry. In the 70s he was living in Ohio and his hobby was playing War games. The way people played was by going to homes, and it was usually in the basement that the host would have a huge table set up to play. He didn’t like the tanks and figures that he could purchase so he began modifying his own game pieces. He was a huge civil war buff which is what made him so good at playing these games. At one of the games, another player was impressed by his game pieces and asked him where he got one of them. When George told the man that he made them, he offered him a job.
The man who was interested worked for a Ral Partha, a company that produced figurines for the gaming industry. From this conversation, George eventually started working for Ral Partha as a freelance sculptor. In fact, some of the figures that George Freeman sculpted are still being sold today. According to Wikipedia, “As early as 1978, Ral Partha produced three series of 15 mm historical miniatures sculpted by George Freeman of Dayton, Ohio. They included Napoleonic-era figures N-xxx Days of the Empire, AW-xxx American Civil War, and AK-xxx Desert Rats, modeling the North African Campaign of World War II. Ann Gallup also contributed an AC-xxx series to the American Civil War line. In 1979 Ral Partha added Freeman’s 25 mm W-xxx Waterloo Collector’s Series, but all of Freeman and Gallup’s figures were discontinued in 1980. George Freeman’s 15mm Napoleonics figures are available from Monday Knight Productions.”
Freeman didn’t just freelance for one company. Ironically, he was commissioned, while he still lived in Ohio, by Reba Collins of the Will Rogers Memorial to sculpt a miniature version of a Will Rogers statue that is in the museum. He had several other connections in the Tulsa area and that is why he moved his family to Oklahoma in 1980. The reason he chose Claremore was because his sister lived there. It took from 1980 to 1990 for George to finally open Inola Castings. It was his dream come true. More blog posts to come about the journey during those ten years.
Inola Castings is still located in Inola on the old 33 access road now renamed Industrial Boulevard. Anyone who visits will be greeted in the entry way with a picture of George. In 2009 the Freeman’s sold Inola Castings to a company out of Utah, but in 2012 David Freeman, son of George Freeman, bought it back. Now it is Freeman owned again.
Keep an eye on this blog for more history of Inola Castings. Do you have a custom item that you need or order? It’s so affordable. Please don’t hesitate to give them a call 918-543-8940 or send artwork to david@inolacastings.com. Don’t have artwork but you have an idea? They will take your idea and create your artwork at no extra charge.
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