Saturday, October 22, 2016

Special Guest Ornithischian @ Blackhawk's Western Dioramas

One facet of the Blackhawk Museum's "The Spirit of The American West" exhibit is a pair of huge dioramas that span the back wall of the gallery. A neat series of set pieces blend into each other creating a cool panorama of the Wild West with Cowboys and Indians, hunters and ranchers, villages and homesteads, cattle drives and massive herds of bison. There's even a triceratops--an extremely rare sight back in those days. 







6 comments:

Buffalo Parm said...

Wow. That is awesome. I know this is what I had in my mind's eye when I would play with little plastic figures and such when I was a little kid. That's what it was supposed to look like; and this guy, or gal, or people went ahead and did it.

The dino is pretty amusing. Given the semi-authenticity of everything else in the display (at least in a stereotypical sense), do you suspect that some visitor made that contribution, or do the modeler just have a clever yet restrained sense of humor?

Willard "Can't Roller Skate" Biscuit said...

Doubtful that the dino was placed by a visitor since that spot isn't really accessible. But I suppose a really motivated (and stealthy) individual with a selfie stick or similar apparatus might be able to stick it there.

Considering the many, many "easter eggs" found in model train dioramas, I suspect the triceratops was put in by one of the guys or gals who put the exhibit together.

Pondering Parm said...

In that 2nd to the last photo we see a native American (I presume) waving a blanket to help steer the stampeding buffalo over the cliff. If that sort of thing really happened, those guys put Spanish matadors to shame . . . .

I am wondering if that little action figure was actually part of a scene where smoke signals were being sent? Or was it custom made for this particular tableau?

yawndave said...

It's a Buffalo Jump

Elaine said...

These pictures remind me when I was little I used to have dreams, well nightmares, the Indians were surounding the house, But then I found out I was Iipay.

Also, because its everywhere on FB, makes me think of Standing Rock. Especially the buffalos.

The Stegosaurs, well that must be there to help you forget its election time...

yawndave said...

I personally would love to see a stegosaurus get involved in this election.