Man builds 'bureaucrats' gallows in Upper Peninsula. We found him on boat to explain

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Over the past week, a roadside gallows on M-28 just east of Marquette has sparked some strong reaction in the local community and online. Last night, we told you that local authorities were aware of that installation, calling it disturbing, but we were still left with questions about who built it and why.

[00:00:19]Tonight, myUP's Skyler Perkins has the answer.

[00:00:22]Sometime in the past week, this news and gallows showed up here in Chocolay Township.

[00:00:27]Today, we went out to find the man who built it and ask why. But, we definitely didn't have a straightforward path to get to him. The installation between the two scenic lookouts and Lake Independence land was on the property of Pagano Builders, which Laura shows as being owned by Thomas Pagano Jr., but no one was there when we looked around. In any case, it gave us a minute to get a good look at the thing and hear what people in the area were reacting to it.

[00:00:50]Can I ask you what you uh think about this? I'm I'm a reporter with the news and town. Okay. Uh I didn't expect this, but my answer is not going to be what people might think.

[00:01:01]I've considered burning it down, but it's too dry.

[00:01:05]Do I think it's racist? Probably.

[00:01:08]Um but here's the thing. I think he believes that the government is screwing him over in some way and his answer is to hang them.

[00:01:18]Which that's the worst thing you can do is kill somebody. Another neighbor told us it was Tom who built it and pointed us to where he lived, but when we got there, someone else told us he was gone fishing. However, she said he still may not be far from shore and we might still be able to contact him through his YouTube live stream. These people that try to contact you, they have so much I don't know. They need to be valid- validated so bad.

[00:01:46]>> It really didn't seem to be going well until I mean, he's streaming on YouTube and he's saying I should meet him out at the second turn off to get on in this boat.

[00:02:00]We'll see how that goes.

[00:02:02]How's it going, Tom?

[00:02:07]Do you mind if I climb on? Yeah, you getting paid to come on, man?

[00:02:11]And after all that, finally, there he was.

[00:02:14]I am Thomas Pagonab and I'm an agitator.

[00:02:19]Who's crazy enough to put something like that outside and put their business name right right next to it?

[00:02:27]This guy is, all right? While on the boat, we talked for over an hour, telling us he's a 45-year-old builder, ex-convict, former barber, avid live streamer, and said the gallows are not meant to be a racial statement, but instead essentially one about inaction from people in power in a world so full of suffering. There's too many lots of things. There's too much government overspending.

[00:02:48]We're not We got empathophiles and deviants running the show and it ain't right, period. And it ain't about black and white, it's about we the people uh being treated fairly and having a say and them not just running away with the ball and saying, "You elected us."

[00:03:08]You know, you elected us, no.

[00:03:12]I don't agree with what's going on.

[00:03:14]A lot of people don't. That's why everything's in turmoil. Of course, we talked for a while, so we can't fit everything we talked about in the story, but he did say he was calling people back to discuss the installation when they left him a message on his business line. That's a lot of the reason I put that up, to get people to think about some real In Chocolay Township, I'm Skyler Perkins for MYUP News.

[00:03:38]All right, very good. Thank you, Skyler, tracking him down. Some audacious reporting there. In Dickinson County, the Iron