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Larger than life bull gets new home at Boot City


 

By Timberly Ferree

Indiana correspondent

 

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A long-time Indiana boot business is now the home to a larger-than-life bull.

The bull, which stands at about 25 by 15 feet, tips the scales at 4 tons. The head alone weighs in at 150 pounds.

The massive creature stands outside of Boot City, located south of Terre Haute on U.S. Highway 41. Boot City owner Rod O’Kelley said the piece is definitely an attention gettr. “People drive up here and take pictures of it,” he said. O’Kelley thinks it is the largest such creature in the state.

The bull was created by John Fleetwood of Sullivan, Ind. O’Kelley had seen a mammoth Fleetwood had created and commissioned him to make the bull.

The bull took roughly a year to make and Fleetwood used re-purposed material for the larger-than-life creation.

“I used all kinds of stuff to make it. It's a wood structure screwed together. I used tractor inner tubes for texture and chicken wire for shape. The inner tubes are a pain in the neck to work with and the bull is bumpy because of its many angles,” he said.

Sullivan Tire Mart in Sullivan, Ind., even got in on the creation, as the business supplied old tires to Fleetwood.

“I would go over on Sunday mornings when no one was there and grab a bunch at a time,” Fleetwood explained. “The inner tubes are thick and incredibly durable material, but the rubber really never lays right. You have to fight it all the way down the line.”

“I used to be a machinist. I didn't know what I was doing, so I came up with a formula. The bull is definitely as big as a small garage,” Fleetwood said.

 

 

11/19/2019