3 Rare Photos Taken During The Dakota Thunder Construction That Will Simply Astound You
By Leah|Published February 14, 2018
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Leah
Author
Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
One of North Dakota’s iconic roadside attractions is Dakota Thunder, a towering buffalo sculpture that was named the world’s largest. You have probably seen it, even if just in photos. But what you probably haven’t seen is what it looked like in the time of its construction. Luckily, there are a handful of rare images that show what building the huge monument looked like from inside out. Take a look:
North Dakota's popular monument, the World's Largest Buffalo named Dakota Thunder, didn't look like this to begin with when it was built in 1959.
The World's Largest Buffalo is located in Jamestown, North Dakota and is one of the state's most popular attractions. It is part of the National Buffalo Museum, located right next to it, and overlooks both the city and a herd of live bison grazing in a pasture below.
This photo shows the building in its first stage - a steel beam skeleton.
The sculpture was commissioned from artist and local college professor Elmer Petersen. It was estimated to have cost $4,600 to construct. Today, that would be almost $40,000.
In this photo, you see it in its very last stages of construction. Notably, you can also see the artist's original sculpture and concept for the big guy right next to it. That sculpture is what was used to build Dakota Thunder at a much bigger scale.
After its construction in 1959 and delighting thousands of visitors over the years, Dakota Thunder also received a bit of restoring and renovating in 2007.
Dakota Thunder was given a fresh coat of paint and also bigger, more realistic horns that would be similar to a real bison. Today, he still stands tall over Jamestown.
You can visit the World’s Largest Buffalo yourself at 500 17th St SE, Jamestown, ND 58401, at the National Buffalo Museum. Click here for more information about the museum
North Dakota has luckily been well documented with photography over the years to show just how much things have changed compared to a century ago.
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