Estes Park Jesus

Buell Porter was a retired Coca-Cola Sign painter. In the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, as you were driving through Eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and many other states you would have seen large billboard signs along the highway. These billboards were, at that time, hand painted by professional painters like Buell Porter. Later on they became papered in a way similar to wall paper, and today they are electronic billboards with flashing, rotating lights, or digital screens.

After retiring from his job at Coca-Cola and moving to Estes Park, Buell Porter would get plans out of Popular Mechanics magazines to create and paint larger than life Christmas scenes to donate to the town of Estes Park. He used an opaque projector in his garage to enlarge the scenes, so that they could be seen for years around Estes Park during the Holidays. The three wise men and their sheep (which have mysteriously disappeared,) Jesus, the manger scene, the Bugville scene, Santa Claus, the Old Lady in the Shoe, and Jesus.

One by one, Porter's religious scenes were eliminated or relocated. The manger scene is now at the Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Estes Park. Jesus was at the west end of Elkhorn until the town decided not to put up Jesus anymore.

As a result, a private party paid the fire department to put up and take down Porter's depiction of Jesus every year during the Holidays. One year the fire department was a little late getting him down and someone filled balloons with green paint and threw them at the figure causing damage.

The students at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center were commissioned by a private party to make a new Jesus. The new Jesus did not look at all like the old Jesus but the message remained the same. Construction on the new structure was not as well thought out as the old one and after a short amount of time it began to deteriorate.

Jesus Inc was formed as a 501 C-3 to help raise funds to build and maintain something more prominent and permanant than the previous two plywood structures.

Herb Mignery, an Artist that is in the Cowboy Artists of America Hall of Fame, was contacted about replacing the 24 foot plywood structure created by the Eagle Rock School with something more substantial, something Estes Park could be proud of year round.

After a lot of thought, it was decided that the final structure would be approximately 28 feet tall. This, according to Mignery was going to be a serious undertaking. He has done a lot of large bronze work, but this bronze statue of Jesus would be nearly three stories tall and larger than any project he had ever done before.

To raise funds, it was initially decided to cast a limited, numbered edition of 20 smaller bronze statues. These smaller bronze statues of Jesus are being sold for $5,600.00 each (at this time there are 8 remaining.) The proceeds from the sale of these 20 smaller bronze statues would go toward acquiring funds to make six foot bronze Jesus.

The plan is to sell the six foot Mignery bronze statue of Jesus for $150,000.00 to continue to raise funds to make the final 28 foot bronze statue that will eventually be placed above downtown Estes Park. There is only one cast of the six foot bronze and the mold has already been destroyed.

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