What's the Story of the Praying Mantis at Container Park?

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."

What's the story behind the big praying mantis sculpture in front of the Container Park downtown?

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Dave in Seattle. Dec-17-2019

Container park.

It scares the crap out of me,when it goes off!

Kevin Lewis Dec-17-2019

Great fun, unless...

...you happen to be trying to sleep at a hotel within earshot, like the El Cortez. Though Container Park pretty effectively prevents that from happening even when the mantis doesn't go off.

Question of the Day - 17 December 2019

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