A new cultural facility in northern Wyoming has a mammoth addition

mammoth

Cheryl Reichelt is director of the new Washakie Museum & Cultural Center in Worland. You can reach her here: creichelt@washakiemuseum.org

Chris Navarro has an interesting story to tell. He was a pro rodeo bull rider in his late teens and early 20s. He was not making any money and saw the future as being quite dim. One day Chris got a look at a small bronze called “Two Champs” by artist Harry Jackson (based in Cody, WY). Navarro liked the work and asked how much it cost? He was told $35,000 and decided that might not be a bad line of work. He went to a craft store in Casper and bought a kit. He labored over books at the library and worked, and worked and worked in a 10 by 55 trailer that was home. Chris Navarro and his wife now have homes in Casper and in Sedona, AZ.

He has sculpted more than a dozen large monuments that are exhibited out of doors in Wyoming including the poignant “Champion Lane Frost” viewed by thousands annually on the grounds of the Old West Museum in Cheyenne. It depicts the former world champion bull rider from Oklahoma who was killed by a bull at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1989. Frost’s life was recounted in the 1994 movie Eight Seconds.

Navarro can be reached at: 928.204.1144.928)-