Wally the Stegosaurus Departs for Restoration Summer
The 1,200-pound Stegosaurus sculpture is a favorite feature of the local museum and has stood guard near its entrance since 1997. Created by Louis Paul Jonas Studios in Hudson, N.Y., Wally spent his first 30 years at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Cleveland commissioned a twin, "Steggie II," to take his place from the original casts.
Wearing a mask just in case, the fiberglass Wally was carefully lifted by Berkshire Crane and Logistics onto a trailer for the 40-mile trek back to the Hudson studio for some much-needed repairs of his 50-year-old body. He's expected to stay in quarantine for most of the summer before returning to the museum in the fall.
A number of people — keeping careful social distancing — took pictures or watched from their cars on the cold, rainy morning.
The museum posted Wally's journey on its Facebook page so people could catch a glimpse of him driving by. Banners that read "Thank you for doing your part to make COVID-19 extinct" were attached to both sides of his 26-foot-long body.
"We hope that catching a glimpse of Wally in the wild provides a brief respite for everyone who comes out to see him. It’s not every day that a Stegosaurus roams the Berkshires," Executive Director Jeff Rodgers wrote in announcing the trip. "Wally will be missed, but we are happy he will be receiving a much-needed restoration so that our community can enjoy him for many years to come."
Wally is only the second sculpture made from the mold created for the Sinclair Dinoland pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. Dinoland was sponsored by the Sinclair Oil Corp., known for its green brontosaurus logo. Jonas is known for his work on natural history exhibits and worked with paleontologists to craft the Dinoland sculptures that later ended up in museums around the country. Another of Wally's brothers is at the Quarry Visitor Center in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.
When he arrived in Pittsfield in 1997, a contest was held to name him. The museum chose Levi Bissell's suggestion of Wally because of the Stegosaurus' walnut-sized brain.
This is Wally's second return to the Jonas studio, where he was reconditioned in 1997 before being placed on the museum's front lawn on South Street. The museum is currently closed to the public during the novel coronavirus pandemic but hopes to reopen in May.
Tags: Berkshire Museum,
