Fort Collins, Colorado: Folk Art: Swetsville Zoo (Closed)

Swetsville Zoo has about 150 metal sculptures depicting dinosaurs, insects, aliens and other oddball shapes. They are made from scrap metal - truck and car parts, farm equipment, tubing and whatever else the artist Bill Swet could find. They range in size from tiny to huge and show quite a sense of humor.

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.

The Swetsville Zoo now has over 140 welded metal sculptures. A legal-sized laminated green card carries the names of the sculptures along with some humorous comments. Retrieve the card from the outside of the 2nd building on the left as you drive in. Sculptures range in height from a few inches to 20 feet. All in all, a good way to spend an hour or so. The kids behind me were having a blast.

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.

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)