A buffalo in red, white and blue crafted from license plates that represent all 23 Wyoming counties is part wonder, part history and part passion for a Casper artist and his "creative gene."
"It's a lot of fun," said Rob Piotter. "It is colorful."
Those ideas have fueled a hobby that has evolved into striking works of Wyoming art — colorful buffalo, custom commissions and other sculptures fashioned entirely from old license plates.
The red, white and blue buffalo is one of Piotter’s proudest creations.
Which is the greatest challenge — collecting the license plates or fashioning the art piece? That might be a toss-up, he said.
License Plate Collecting
Piotter collects license plates from garage and estate sales. He also attends license-plate meets — events where collectors gather to swap and buy plates across vintages and geographic areas. Collectors use them for anything from birdhouses and wind chimes to the head-snapping sculptures Piotter creates.
It took Piotter more than a year to collect the plates to represent all 23 counties for the patriotic buffalo piece, made all from Wyoming Centennial license plates.
Of the 23, county 16 – Johnson – was the hardest to find.
Piotter said he doesn’t know why.
Perhaps more astonishing is where he finally tracked down that one on eBay, from a seller in New York, for $25.
How He Made It
Once every county was represented, the real work began.
Piotter enlarged a photograph of a buffalo and traced its outline onto masonry board. Then, using tin snips – scissors for metal – he carefully cut each license plate into custom shapes before gluing and riveting them into place.
The finished piece is mounted on wood and accented with a brass Wyoming state seal medallion. There's even room reserved for a ranch brand or custom emblem if a buyer wants to personalize it.
At one point, Piotter hoped the red, white and blue buffalo might find a home in the Wyoming Capitol.
He said Gov. Mark Gordon's office expressed interest, and Piotter even offered to deliver and install it.
"There's not going to be another one, ever," he said.
The sale never materialized, and the sculpture remains available.
Rob Piotter's own eclectic license plate collection is on display in Casper's Rialto Soda Fountain, which he owns. (Rob Piotter) 
The Rialto Soda Fountain in Casper used to be a cigar store. (Rob Piotter) 
Rob Piotter's own eclectic license plate collection is on display in Casper's Rialto Soda Fountain, which he owns. (Rob Piotter)
Every Cut Is Hard-Earned
Creating the buffalo took about a month — longer than usual — because Piotter lives with both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
"Arthritis took my hands," he said.
The disease makes cutting sheet metal slow and painful, but it hasn't stopped him from creating.
He's been collecting license plates for about 20 years, building an eclectic collection that fills his downtown Casper business, the Rialto Soda Fountain.
His collection, including one from Kansas that says “WRITER” and one from Texas that says “AUTHOR,” is on display. Along with being an artist, Piotter is also an author, musician and business owner.
The soda fountain, which he owns, seems a fitting place for his plates. That’s because of its own eclectic history. The 285-square-foot space was a McDonald's Cigar Store in the 1920s.
In a 2023 Cowboy State Daily story on the soda fountain’s history, Piotter called it a “Cadillac inside a 1922 body.”
For Piotter, license plates are more than metal.
"It's a color thing," he said.
Wyoming's designs have changed over the years, giving him a palette to work with. Black-and-white plates from the early 1970s became a Darth Vader commission. Buffalo-themed pieces have incorporated the colors of the NFL's Buffalo Bills.
A Wyoming Tradition
Piotter's fascination with Wyoming license plates began soon after he arrived in the state.
Originally from Michigan, he moved west in 1982 at age 19. Wyoming wasn't supposed to be his final destination.
He and friends planned to continue to Denver but stopped to visit someone in Saratoga.
"He handed me a Casper paper," Piotter recalled. "I was working the next day."
More than four decades later, he still calls Casper home.
Over the years, Piotter has hunted for plates at garage sales, estate sales and license-plate meets, where collectors from around the country gather to buy, sell and trade vintage tags.
Many collectors repurpose old plates into birdhouses, wind chimes and other crafts. Piotter saw something bigger.
He was inspired after seeing a seven-foot bucking horse sculpture created from Wyoming license plates by Gillette artist Conner Baldacci.
Baldacci turned heads in 2013 as a teenager for his colorful license-plate creations.
"I thought maybe I could do that in a buffalo," Piotter said.
He sought Baldacci’s opinion first, not wanting to step on the young artist’s toes.
Baldacci, who went on to become a renowned custom guitar maker with his own shop in Gillette, gave his blessing.
Art That Tells Wyoming's Story
Piotter has created artwork commemorating Wyoming's 2017 total solar eclipse, producing 100 prints that sold out before the celestial event arrived.
"They were gone before the eclipse," he said. "People were buying them up like crazy."
His work has also found public homes. A large buffalo constructed from Wyoming license plates is on display at the Aero Center at Natrona County International Airport, greeting travelers with a colorful tribute to the Cowboy State.
For Piotter, every sculpture tells a story — not just of Wyoming, but of the individual license plates that traveled the state's highways before becoming art.
And despite the arthritis that makes every cut more difficult than the last, he has no plans to stop creating.
For someone with the "creative gene," there's always another idea waiting to take shape.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
