And the band played on.
The Swetsville Zoo may be the greatest roadside attraction in all of the United States. Maybe even greater than Carhenge. So what is it? Where is it? Why is it?
Where it is is just outside Fort Collins. What it is is a collection of metal sculptures made mostly from car parts.
Why it is is obvious. Because the world could always use another collection of whimsical metal animal sculptures.
I visited in June 2003. I remember hearing a few years later that it was closing and that the land was going to be used for condominiums or a strip mall or something less whimsical. I assumed it was closed. But it wasn't. In the summer of 2019, the land officially went on the market, so it could be sold to build condominiums or a strip mall or something far less whimsical.
But the Swetsville Zoo apparently still is open and inspiring awe.
For example: wow. That VW Bug has been transformed into a giant bug.
Sea serpent and turtles. Turning old tires into the body of a sea serpent may be obvious once you think about, but who thought of it before Mr. Swets constructed his Zoo.
In a world of digial photographhy, I would have taken about 1 million pictures. But film was expensive to develop and pictures were scarce. Hence that awesome skeletal dinosaur has to be merely background fodder for that awesome giant winged insect scuplture in the foreground. The skeletal dinosaur deserved a photo in its own right.
Snoopy and Woodstock, transformed:
There was a small "indoor" section of the Swetsville Zoo, which is where the really weird stuff was kept.
This one has a dinosaur/Star Wars stormtrooper/I've been working on the railroad vibe that somehow works perfectly fine in this environment.
Not all the zoo animals are friendly, of course:
This was an absolutely amazing place.
Well worth the time spent. Enjoy it while it is still of this world, even though it may be other-wordly.
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