First-time drift boat anglers sending their lines into the North Platte hoping for a lunker east of Alcova, Wyoming, are often hooked by a surprising sight on a bluff above them.
“Everyone is like, ‘What in the world is up there?’” said Eric Anderson, fly-fishing guide for the North Platte Lodge and The Reef Fly Shop in Alcova. “I just usually respond, ‘That’s art.’”
Along the area’s Lusby public access road, a 10-foot metal and skeletal Tyrannosaurus rex with a large head and jagged teeth rises above the river, a fishing pole extending from its tiny claws and a metal fish hooked on its line.
Wes Richner, owner of the Lone Tree Drift Boat Rentals & Guide Service in Alcova, said he enjoys watching people react.
“You go, ‘OK, look to the left, there’s a T. rex,’” he said. “And they look at you real funny, and then they look up on the bluff, and then they take photos of it and stuff.”
While Wyoming is known for its real dinosaur skeletons, this one came from the welding tools of Richner’s grandfather and a cousin in the late 1980s as they dreamed up a winter project.
At the time, the Richner family owned the Miracle Mile Ranch about 16 miles north of Seminoe State Park. That’s where the statue first stood.
“My family ran the cabins and the store out there,” Richner said. “It was placed by the cabins out there for a long time.”
A 10-foot fishing T. rex casts an awesome silhouette as the sun goes down over the North Platte River. (Courtesy Wes Richner) 
The T. rex that now sits on Wes Richner’s property came into the world thanks to his grandfather and a cousin who took on a winter project. Once at the Miracle Mile Ranch, Richner said the metal reptile skeleton will continue to be a fixture on the North Platte River bank east of Alcova for years to come. (Courtesy Wes Richner) 
The mighty T. rex guards the river at night east of Alcova. It sits on private property but is a well known fixture for those who travel the river. (Courtesy Wes Richner)
Farm-Made Creature
The dinosaur is welded using chain and other pieces of farm machinery to give it the definitive T. rex head and then a skeletal body of ribs, feet, and arms. There are big round gears that represent the hips where the legs extend to the ground.
A pole helps support the sculpture as it endures the pressures of Wyoming wind, winter, and sun.
Richner said when the family sold the property years ago, the dinosaur stayed behind with the new owners for years. But subsequent owners asked them to come and get it.
So, the family re-situated the reptile about a decade ago so fishermen and river users would continue to see it.
“It’s sitting above the Lusby access on our private land up on a big bluff,” Richner said. “That would have been placed there in 2013 or 2014.”
The Lusby access is located about 20 miles west of Casper on Highway 220.
Anderson, in his 12th year as a guide, said the metal monster represents a mid-point between two productive fishing holes. One is called the Toilet Bowl, a recirculating back eddy, where the boat can be positioned to spin in circles as clients catch fish.
“That’s the closest little spot to it,” he said. “It’s a cool spot with a deep drop off.”
For his clients in the boat, Anderson treats the dinosaur in different ways. Sometimes he lets them discover it on their own and other times he will introduce it.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Bring ’em in, take a seat, we’ll start fishing again down there by the dinosaur,’” he said. “And they’ll be like, ‘Dinosaur? What is that?’ And you tell them it is made out of old tractor parts or whatever. Everyone loves it.”
Everyone Wants Photos
Anderson said he can’t count the number of photos of the dinosaur on his phone. People who forgot their own phones will want him to snap a photo of it and send it to them as a memory.
During the good weather in November and December last year, Anderson said he noticed the Richners dressed the T. rex up for the season causing more client conversations.
“I did a decent amount of trips,” he said. “It was cool floating down because it was like ‘he’s got the Santa hat on and he’s all decorated for Christmas.”
In addition to owning the drift boat business and the T. rex, Richner said his family has a haying and farming operation on acreage adjacent to the river - they run a farm stand for fresh vegetables and sweet corn on Highway 220 during the season.
While the dino is rusting a little, Richner said it definitely has more life ahead as a sentinel and source of conversation.
“A lot of older people still remember it from it being out on the ‘Mile’ (because) they stayed in the cabins (owned by) my parents and came to the store. And then once it got placed up here it brought back a lot of memories for people,” he said. “It’ll stay in that spot for many years to come.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
