The Campbell County Rockpile Museum in Gillette has completely recovered from the Pronghorn Massacre of 2025.
No, there wasn’t a tragic wildlife die-off in northern Wyoming. The massacre was the loss of 10 life-size pronghorn statues, destroyed in a windstorm while they were in a trailer enroute to Gillette from Nebraska in December.
Fortunately, 10 new pronghorn statues arrived at the Rockpile Museum this week. They will soon be painted and placed outside before a fundraising auction put on by the Rockpile Museum Association.
“I had to be asked to make a phone call to our contact (in Nebraska) when they were delivered,” said Tara Stoneking, business manager of the Rockpile Museum Association. “When I called, she said, ‘I was kind of nervous seeing your number pop up,’ but I let her know that they arrived safely.”
Smashed To Smithereens
Stoneking said the Rockpile Museum Association ordered the 10 fiberglass pronghorn statues in October 2025 for their Parade of Pronghorns fundraiser. Each statue was to be painted by a different Wyoming artist, then auctioned off to raise funds for the museum.
“We had an incredible company, Icon Poly out of Nebraska, create the statues for us,” she said. “We narrowed down our order to 10 pronghorn for 10 artists, and had Icon Poly fulfill the order.”
The pronghorn statues were finished by December and loaded onto a trailer. Icon Poly personnel would make the delivery themselves, driving 562 miles from Gibbon, Nebraska, to Gillette.
Unfortunately, the day they chose for the drive was Dec. 18. They had no way of knowing that would be the same day a particularly intense windstorm swept across Wyoming, with wind gusts as high as 100 mph reported in northern Wyoming.
The light-weight fiberglass pronghorn didn’t stand a chance. According to Stoneking, the statues and the trailer carrying them got blown off the road, tipped over, and were destroyed.
“All 10 of our pronghorn succumbed to the wind and totaled (Icon Poly’s) trailer as well,” she said. “That was a hard phone call to take. They told us this was the first time that’d happened to them in the history of their company.”
Got It Covered
The bad news is that all the pronghorn statues were destroyed. The good news is that they were all covered by insurance.
Stoneking said Icon Poly quickly replaced the pulverized pronghorn with 10 new statues. This came at no cost to the Rockpile Museum Association, thanks to Icon Poly’s insurance.
On Thursday, the 10 new statues arrived safely and intact at the Rockpile Museum. Icon Poly took no chances this time.
“They sent everything via FedEx Freight this time,” Stoneking said. “We're all very excited that they are here and ready for pickup and painting.”
Parade Of Pronghorns
The 10 fiberglass pronghorns are currently being picked up by the 10 artists selected for the Parade of Pronghorns fundraiser. Artists from Greybull, Lander, Buffalo, Cheyenne, and Wheatland, along with five from Gillette, were selected from dozens of applicants.
“It’s been a lot of having to tell the artists to hurry up and wait since October,” Stoneking said. “They’re coming, no, they're not, hold on, they're not here yet. Now, they are here and ready to be picked up.
Stoneking said the artists will bring their painted pronghorns to the Rockpile Museum by May 8, the same day that the museum’s annual Sheepherder’s Festival begins. They’ll be on public display in front of the museum for the entire summer.
The Rockpile Museum Association will host an auction for the 10 statues on Sept. 10. All funds raised will go toward the association’s general fund, which assists the museum with programs, acquisitions, and a summer internship program.
“We had an overwhelming response from artists, and the fact that we had to narrow it down to 10 was hard,” Stoneking said. “The Parade of Pronghorns is something that we would love to see and host again, and we’re eager to see its success this year.”
Pulverized Pronghorn
It’s legal to collect roadkill from Wyoming’s highways, but nobody was able to recover the pronghorn alongside the highway in December. Since they were “smashed to bits,” Stoneking said all the pieces and the destroyed trailer were quickly cleared away.
Stoneking has some hope that pronghorn pieces might still exist and could be recovered. Pieces of pronghorn could still have some value to benefit the Rockpile Museum.
“We're actually trying to see if we can hunt down any salvageable pieces,” she said. “We were told they all got scooped up and totaled, but we could still use a horn or a hind quarter.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
