Fort Collins - Timnath, Colorado - Folk Art: Swetsville Zoo

Fort Collins - Timnath, Colorado - Folk Art: Swetsville Zoo

Meet Bill Swets, zookeeper of a metal menagerie. Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Fort Collins - Timnath, Colorado - Swetsville Zoo - The Bungled Jungle

Bungle in the Jungle [exhibit] is no longer part of Swetsville Zoo. It moved about three years ago to Salida, Colorado. It was replaced by a business that sold fountains, but that didn't last long. Bungle in the Jungle, 132 West 1st Street, Salida, CO. [Rick, 03/26/2007]

[RA: September 2008: Emily and Brian report that the rest of the Swetsville Zoo is intact in Fort Collins.]

Fort Collins - Timnath, Colorado - Swetsville Zoo

It was inundated by the major flood that hit the Poudre River, but has survived. The train around the cornfied -- not associated with the zoo, but a separate entity, is now, alas, gone. The track was pulled at least a year ago. [Norm Ritchie, 06/05/1999]

[RA: Bill Swets' Swetsville Zoo features 70 sculptures, including dinosaurs, flowers, animals and windmills constructed of car parts, farm machinery, and scrap metal. Located 1/4 mile E of I-25 on Harmony Road.]

Fort Collins - Timnath, Colorado - Swetsville Zoo

Outside of Fort Collins in Colorado, there is an old farming family that has taken old metal farming implements and welded them together into whimsical creatures LARGE and small, placing them all over their farmyard and along the river bank. It is all free of charge and has a muppet-like whimsy.

There is a train ride circling a corn field, and a large outbuilding has several glassed in rooms filled with fantasy scenes. I promise you this is a fun place. (Fort Collins is 50 miles north of metro Denver) [Jan Franzen, 01/08/1997]

[RA: Sounds like the fabulous Swetsville Zoo. We enjoyed the indoor dioramas -- "The Bungled Jungle" - of space aliens, animals, and humans in fantastic poses. One scene shows a man-sized rat reading the paper while a dog-sized fly (the rat's pet, "Fly-do") eats from a dog dish. Some of the sculptures outside resemble futuristic race cars and day-glo space ships.]