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What's the story behind the big praying mantis sculpture in front of the Container Park downtown?
"The massive metallic mantis" that stands sentinel in front of Downtown Container Park is a 150-to-1 blowup of an actual insect that an aerospace engineer by the name of Kirk Jellum erected as a first wedding anniversary gift for his wife and, incidentally, for an appearance at Burning Man.
It stands 40 feet tall and is 30 feet at its widest; it's also fire-breathing, shooting flames fueled by liquid propane (about 50 gallons a day) up to 60 feet in the air and can reportedly speak 20 different languages through its 40,000-watt audio system. It wakes up as night falls, alerted by a drum circle, "Call to the Mantis," and keeps going till Container Park closes. It's currently on loan from Jellum and can be moved at anytime; it made an appearance at Zion National Park before being hauled to Las Vegas.
We like a description we've seen of the thing: "a giant metal monument to love and monsters."