Giant bull head is going to get attention, regardless of whatever it is your peddling. Thankfully, the item in question isn’t being used to generate business for some greasy all-you-can-eat buffet. Instead, it’s drawing folks into the Porter Sculpture Park, a nifty little roadside attraction off Interstate 90 in South Dakota. You may have heard of the biggest ball of twine in Darwin, Minnesota, a like-minded oddity that was immortalized in a “Weird Al” Yankovic song. Well, this is kind of the same thing, except with a bull head in place of sisal twine.
Wayne Porter, 61, is the man behind the awesomeness, a sculptor with a sizable outdoor garden littered with all sorts of one-of-a-kind art pieces, most of which are big, metallic, and more than a little peculiar. Porter opened the garden to the public in 2000, though he’s been crafting these unusual sculptures since he was 12 years-old.
Besides the giant bull head, prospective visitors and their cohorts will be able to feast their kitschy eyes on a buzzard holding a knife and fork, an oversized mallet, and nearly 40 other like-minded pieces. Of course, it’s the 60-foot, 25-ton bull’s head that keeps him in business. And if you somehow managed to miss the bull head, there’s a gigantic billboard which reads “World’s Largest Bull’s Head” that will kindly lead you in the right direction.
Despite the number of folks who are sucked in by the bull’s tractor beam, Porter really has no idea how many people have shown up to gawk at his artwork over the years. “When I’m really busy, I can’t count them. And when I’m not busy, it’s not worth counting them,” he remarked.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Porter has already begun construction of another gigantic attraction: A 40-foot-tall metal horse. However, since the artist’s blacksmithing workshop is quite a distance from his sculpture garden, transporting the item to its permanent home may prove difficult. Seeing as how it took the talented guy almost three years to finish the bull head, I’d say he has plenty of time to figure out the logistics.
