Skip to main content

Thunder Mountain - Indian Monument



Driving along Interstate 80 through Nevada I spotted a structure and asked Erich, “What is that?” He promptly took the off ramp and we headed down a snow packed frontage road leading to Thunder Mountain Indian Monument. A fantastic folk art building right off the highway made out of discarded debris found within a 50 mile radius of the site. Mr. Frank VanZant, (A.K.A. Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder), a WWII veteran, sheriff’s deputy and Methodist Pastor, built his monument for the Native American Indian. It was modeled after a similar bottle house he saw as a kid in Death Valley. The Great Eagle Spirit came to him in a dream and told him to build a nest here. The structure consists of bottles, car windshields, gas pumps, old dolls, potbelly stoves, rebar and concrete sculptures. Although some of the structures have burned down a three story house remains and is cared for by his son and visitor donations.
The site is located in Imlay, Nevada, 130 miles northeast of Reno.
http://www.thundermountainmonument.com

ScreenShot2013-12-31at1.24.58PM-2013-12-31-12-38.png









Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kansas and Oklahoma Road Trip

Labor Day weekend is a chance to travel farther than a six hour radius from home and see more of this great country.  We try to go to places where half of America is not visiting the same sites.  Therefore, Kansas and Oklahoma! The goal of this trip was to shoot Natural Falls in Siloam Springs, Oklahoma.  Never made it.  We spent a lot of time on Kansas. All the road tips to Indiana to see family, there is absolutely nothing to shoot in Kansas, well not off I-70 anyway.  It wasn't until we headed south to Wichita that we found some cool stuff. First stop was Monument Rocks in Gove County. Kansas.  Rock formation in the middle of farm land. Erich flew the drone around and we snapped a few photos - great start to the trip!! Camera: Fuji XT3 Wichita is really a nice city with a new-ish city center.  The Keeper of the Plains greets visitors on sacred Indian ground between the Little Arkansa and the Arkansa Rivers.  At night fla...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grand Teton and Yellowstone - Wyoming!

The second road trip of the year we headed to northern Wyoming to visit the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We stayed in Colter Bay, a village in the Grand Tetons, renting a rustic cabin for 4 nights.  This was the home base for our adventures of exploration in the parks. We had a bit of weather the first two days, after all it is Wyoming and you always have to be prepared for anything.  It was quite cold, around the lower 40s in the day time , cloudy and rainy.  We bring our 'Wyoming Bag' on every road trip (gloves, beanies, and 32 degree jackets). This is not great weather for photography, but we pushed through. We brought the IR converted Lumix cameras just for fun. We did some cool stuff in infrared in the Badlands two weeks ago and wanted to keep the trend going.   Camera: FujiFilm XT5, Lumix LX 100, iPhone  Grand Tetons in Infrared  We started the trip in Cody, Wyoming over the weekend intending to avoid the weekenders in the parks.  We strol...
Post a Comment
Read more

Badlands - Memorial Day Weekend

First road trip of the summer to the Badlands of South Dakota.  We packed up the truck and the Yeti and headed out on a beautiful day excited to get out and escape for a couple of days. Our lunch stop was in the small town of Edgemont, SD.  Cute little city park with a covered bridge, a Canadian Geese family, young boys fishing from the bridge and two large guns flanking the entrance to the park...interesting.  Camera: FujiFilm XT5, Lumix LX100 We had some weather on this trip once we got to Rapid City, which seems to be the norm anymore on our photo trips.  So, we made the best of it and decided t do some long exposure shots in the park and follow some really ominous clouds which resulted in a wicked hail storm.  After it was over it looked like it had snowed. Well, that is spring/summer in the mountains of the west. We were a bit discouraged since the sky just turned to gray, so we left the park and took the Sheep Table Mountain off road trail with a brief sto...
Post a Comment
Read more