Residents of Kalispell, Montana, might have noticed dinosaur standing outside of Lower Valley Processing for the last several months is into the holidays.
It took years of collecting and months of creative actualization to create this "shoulder sculpture." This dinosaur literally stands on the shoulders of giants from Wyoming and Montana.
Wes Plummer, the man who envisioned and created this dino sculpture entirely out of shoulder blades, couldn't recall exactly how many it took to make it, but the number’s nothing to shrug at.
"I saved shoulder blades for three years to get enough of them to do this," he told Cowboy State Daily. "If you see pictures of some funky stuff, it's probably my dinosaur."
Creative Processing
Plummer was born and raised in Kalispell and was in the processing business up until last year. This alsowasn't his first large-scale sculpture project for the family business.
"I retired in January of last year," he said. "My wife had some medical issues and couldn't go anywhere, so we had to stay here. This was my first retirement project."
Plummer's first sculpture was Betty Lou, a giant pig he modeled after a piggy bank his parents brought back from a trip to Mexico. He turned that into a larger-than-life pig that proudly promotes the business.
The inspiration for his latest project came from a trip to a local supply store with his grandchildren.
"We were in Murdoch's and saw this little Stegosaurus model there, so I bought it," he said. "That's how it all started. We scaled it up from that toy."
Plummer had been saving shoulder blades for years in anticipation of doing something with them. He boiled and cleaned the raw bones in a horse trough until they were down to the bare bones, then stored them until he had enough to build his shoulder sculpture.
Retired and inspired, Plummer got to work.
Shoulder Strapping
There's no do-it-yourself guide to building a dinosaur out of discarded shoulder blades. Plummer had to tap into his creative process for the creative processing process.
It started with a skeletal design on draft paper to the same scale of the finished sculpture. The finished dinosaur is a scale model of the toy Plummer bought at Murdoch's.
"I got a pretty nice little shop here, and I can go out there and work on it all day long," he said. “I had to figure out how to weld a big frame for it, and then I welded it. Once that was finished, I got to strapping."
Once he determined where to put each shoulder, Plummer used screws to attach them to the frame. The shape of a shoulder blade was surprisingly malleable when building a Stegosaurus, especially for the thin plates lined along its back.
Plummer returned to Murdoch's multiple times to get enough screws to complete the thing.
"I need to figure out just exactly how many screws I've used," he said. "All I know is that Murdoch's owes me a fortune."
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
His shoulder blade dinosaur isn't Wes Plummer's first funky creation. There's also Betty Lou, a giant pink pig. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer) 
Wes Plummer collected shoulders from bison, elk, cattle and many other animals for three years until he had enough to build a prehistoric dinosaur from modern bones. It's funky, fun and named Windee. (Courtesy Wes Plummer)
Modern Menagerie
The dozens of shoulders that make Plummer's dinosaur came from several different animals. The prehistoric creature is a chimera of shoulders from modern-day cattle, goats, sheep, deer and other "locally sourced materials."
"We've slaughtered a lot of buffalo out of Yellowstone National Park for the tribes," he said. "I've bought hundreds of elk and sold the meat to restaurants, and a fellow that's got a ranch here that raises yaks. There's a lot of yaks in the sculpture."
Plummer had to get creative in places where shoulders wouldn't work. He used yak horns for the "thagomizer," the paleontological term for the tail spikes of stegosaurs (which was commandeered from a 1982 edition of Gary Larson's “The Far Side” comic).
To get a head on all the shoulders, Plummer used the lower jaw of a large draft mule he happened to have available. The eyes are bulbous top ends of upper leg bones, painted black and set in sockets made from the hip of a large bull.
"I had to take some bones apart to make its nose and stuff, but it's all bones,” he said.
Stegosaurus was an herbivorous dinosaur, and most of Plummer's Stegosaurus comes from the post-mortem remains of vegan animals. However, anyone who is especially well acquainted with bones will notice some carnivorous additions to the sculpture.
"I've got six bear shoulder blades on there," he said. "Those are the only shoulder blades that have two fins on them. I used them to see if people can spot any of them."
Shrugging It Off
Plummer started his shoulder sculpture nearly a year ago in January and added the finishing touches in August.
Named Windee, it’s displayed in front of Lower Valley Processing in Kalispell, 2115 Lower Valley Road.
Despite fulfilling his creative processing project, Plummer is still collecting bones. He continues to add to his "big fancy skull collection" acquired from years of processing domestic animals and wild game, and he's been asked to consider giving Windee some company.
"Some people want me to build a couple little babies to go with it," he said. "I don't know about that, but I know I could get enough shoulders to do it."
After months of hard work and creativity, seeing his shoulder sculpture with a Santa hat and Christmas lights is a bonus for Plummer. It adds to the funk of his "funky dinosaur."
"It was a lot of work, but I had a riot doing it," he said.
Contact Andrew Rossi at andrew@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
