Thursday, May 25, 2023
Continuing east on I-80, just outside of Cheyenne we stopped at The Wyoming Metal Art Roadside Attraction, a sort of Roadside America attraction in that the latter highlights an underground workshop that is no longer open. Mel Gould (passed away in 2022) is known for creating wind sculptures out of found items, but he was much more: a self-taught engineer and inventor. His day job was in research and development at Foresight Products, Inc, where he developed anchors for use in concrete and masonry.
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| Mel's wife, Opal, used to carry shopping bags |
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| Wyoming Broomtailed Blackbird and Ellie Phant |
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Mel also created working vehicles; however, the
Barney Fife Security Helicopter pilot with a bowling
ball head just waves when the wind blows (KSS) |
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Usually Mel used items that would have been
thrown away, but for this bird sculpture, he
used his wife's brand new crockpot! (KSS) |
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Rocky does rock with the wind, and
mans the tiny donations box (KSS) |
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| A hollow horse (KSS) |
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We were greeted by the family dog and
Mels' daughter who gave us lots of
information and unlocked a storage
building to show us the "cars" |
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The Purple People Eater (the car, 1959) is an eight-wheeled
prairie buggy that can handle any terrain and was
used for hunting; using c 1940 spare Ford car parts,
the vehicle cost Mel less than $200 to build |
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The Purple People Eater was featured on the
cover of the Mechanix Illustrated in 1961 |
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Mel was a cook in the US Army, and one day carved
an idea for his three-wheeled Gould Special out of a potato |
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| The Gould Special (KSS) |
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| The Gould Special in its last version as the Moon Beam |
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The Moon Beam was featured in a
1962 issue of Mechanix Illustrated |
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Homemade windmills that generated
power for Mel's workshop and home |
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The six-person bicycle (three girls' bikes and three
boy's bikes) was used by the family in the annual
Cheyenne Frontier Days Parade |
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| Wiggly spins in the wind |
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| Lazy Daisy |
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| A Man with Two Dogs and a Chicken (KSS) |
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| Giraffe |
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The head of the giraffe is a motorcycle gas tank,
the eyelashes are the tines of forks, and the
ears are garden trowels |
Mel Gould has also worked with the environmental artist Christo, by developing anchors and mechanisms for the 'Umbrellas' and 'Running Fence' projects.
Next: Great Platte River Road, Nebraska.
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