Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WINNEMUCCA, Nevada — Those who have driven on I-80 toward Reno may have noticed a strange sight west of Winnemucca — a memorial, made largely of junk, that sprung from the mind of a man who still puzzles visitors decades after he built his creation.
Thunder Mountain Memorial was created by a man who called himself Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder. Friends and family said he worked on the project from sunup to sundown seven days a week for seven years, from 1968 to 1975.
It may seem to have everything but the kitchen sink, although it does have an upside-down toilet.
"I like that it's using trash to create something beautiful," said Cyndi Stevens of Sacramento, Calif. "I like everything about it."
Stevens said she read about the memorial online and brought her kids.
"It's something they've never seen before," Stevens said. "You've never seen anything like this."
Some elements in the structure may seem explainable, such as the faces and bodies in anguish that represent the white man's abuse of Native Americans.
Other creations are may be more baffling to some — junk, rocks and sculpture jumbled together into fences and walls. The monument appears not far removed from the look of a junkyard.
"He was just driven to build," said the creator's close friend Lizard Hope.
Hope said he was also driven for the underdog.
Related Story
Alien-looking geyser growing in remote corner of Nevada
Located about 100 miles north of Reno, Nev., is the tiny town of Gerlach. Twenty miles north of that is Fly Ranch, home to one of the most unique geysers in the world."The thing that he said most often, he said that 'it was a monument to the last free man,' " Hope said. "The middle class, lower class, that they were being eroded. It's Indian too because a lot of them, they were really put down."
One mystery is whether Thunder was really a chief, or even an Indian. Hope knew him for 20 years and said they still aren't sure.
"A lot of people wonder," Hope said. "Probably I've heard more people say they don't think he's an Indian, ‘He's a Dutchman or something,' than I've ever heard say, ‘Yeah, he's an Indian.' "
Regardless, the memorial captured what he felt about the fate of Native Americans, in a setting with religious overtones.
"He felt like this was going to be a sanctuary,' Hope said. "I think he really felt like the end was near and that this was one of the chosen places."
After vandals reportedly burned part of the memorial in 1989, Thunder committed suicide. Now, thousands pass by every day on I-80, most without noticing.
The Thunder Mountain Memorial is on an I-80 frontage road at exit 145, 34 miles west of Winnemucca, Nevada.
