JUNKYARD GENIUS

How many of you enjoy the Wyoming wind? I am going to introduce you to a man who draws inspiration from the wind as well as items you and I might cast out: a bent fork or spoon, rusty pots and pans, a motor that doesn’t work, buckets, hard hats, or even old missile parts. For him, an idea can be sparked by any given object at any time of day or night.

This local property owner takes no claim to fame and credits the Lord for giving him the skills and ideas to do what he does. He says he is only a packrat and a tinkerer and claims he can barely read or write yet he has drawn visitors from around the world.

I have personal knowledge and first-hand experience witnessing the ingenuity and creative powers of Mel Gould, my grandfather. I would like to give you a brief tour of the man and some of the wonderful things he has done. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Among the extraordinary things Mel has been a part of are three over-the-top projects with the famous Bulgarian artist, Christo. The first was The Running Fence, 24.5 miles of fabric stretching across the California countryside and into the Pacific Ocean. This project crossed Sonoma and Marin counties, 14 major roads and went through the town of Valley Ford. Mel helped design and install the anchors used to hold over 2,000 poles and 240,000 square yards of fabric across this expanse for two weeks. This project was featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in a 2010 exhibition called “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering The Running Fence”.

The second Christo project was The Surrounding Islands in Biscayne Bay, Florida. The concept behind this art project was to turn the islands into “lily pads”. In order to accomplish this, engineers created a unique fabric the floated on salt water and retained its color while allowing the creatures below to breath. Mel helped to create steel anchors that were driven through the coral rock.

The last Christo project involving my grandpa is one I can remember personally, The Umbrellas. Project research and development began on my grandfather’s property but had to be moved to a neighbor’s place because Christo wanted to more privacy. The aim of the project was to develop 3,000 giant umbrellas, each with a diameter of 28’ and 500 square yards of fabric. Mel designed the prototype for the umbrellas and spent weeks testing them and working out the kinks.

At that time Ted Daugherty, one of the project supervisors said: “Mel is a real genius. He figured out all the angles. He was the mechanic who figured out how to make ‘em work-how to make the umbrellas operate up and down.” In October of 1991, 1,500 yellow umbrellas were erected in California and 1,500 blue ones put up in Japan and left on display for two weeks.

In addition to working with Christo, Mel has created his own works of art, two of which were featured in Mechanix Illustrated: the Purple People Eater and the Moon Beam. The Purple People Eater was built in 1959 and appeared on the December 1961 cover of the magazine. It is an 8 wheeled vehicle with 4 independently running axles made for hunting on the prairies. It was on display at the Forney Car Museum in Denver, Colorado for 34 years.

The Moon Beam was also featured in a detailed Mechanix Illustrated article describing this three-wheeler made of junk. Originally this modified tricycle had a hay bailer motor that was replaced in 1967 with a Honda Goldwing motorcycle frame and engine with the front tire and forks removed. The body is made of Chevrolet automobile hoods.

Fringe Art on the Front Range is a documentary takes the viewer through Colorado and Wyoming to sees some of today’s most creative junkyard artists. The film was produced with a grant from the Denver Mayor’s Office of Art, Culture, and Film and played at the Denver International Airport. This documentary provides a brief walk-through of Grandfather’s art and that of other area artists locally. Along the same line is Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations another documentary produced by three filmmakers from Kansas City and sponsored by the Sprint Corporation. In addition, dozens of other articles have been written about my grandfather and featured in local and regional newspapers. Recently, former Wyoming State Historian, Mark Junge, has been converting historic, Mel Gould film footage to DVD format and placing them in the Wyoming State Archives so future generations will become aware of my grandfather and what he has accomplished.

As you head east from Cheyenne, in about ten miles you will come to a property that stands out from the rest. That would be the “Wonderland of Mel Gould”. Most notable is the 35’ tower with 55 gallon drums cut in half and titled “The Wind Thing”. Once a merry-go-round, it now powers a battery that operates underground tools and machinery. The Wind Thing has also served as a geocache in national scavenger hunts.

On my grandfather’s property are many wind-powered devices and creatures-animatronics whose parts blow in the wind such as: an elephant with hard hat feet; a propane tank bear; a giraffe with a motorcycle gas tank head, eating forks for eyelashes, and a steel-toe shoetip mouth; a horse whose thighs are toilet seats; and a scorpion with a missile-head butt and ashtray feet.

You can find a variety of airplanes and helicopters here as well. When my grandparents married, my grandmother told my grandfather that he “could build anything he wanted as long as he stayed on the ground” because she was afraid he would crash in a test flight.

So Mel built vehicles and tractors instead. One such vehicle was the Brute, a 1952 Kaiser Manhattan with a Slant-6, with 325 horsepower hitched into a 5 speed transmission connected to a 1.5 ton truck rear end. The Brute weighs four tons.

The Little Car (L.C.) is a 1962 Dodge Lancer with a 170 horsepower Slant-6. It was chopped from a 4-door into a 2-door by removing the front seat and shortening the drive shaft to one foot. You can literally be a ‘back seat driver’ in L.C.

“Grandpa’s Dream” was a tractor-of-many-tasks--fork lift, bulldozer, lawn mower, crane, etc. Mel has a tendency to build tractors or vehicles according to his tasks or needs in the moment.

As the years rolled by, it became harder and harder for my grandmother and mother to get around. Grandpa built them tricycles that didn’t require balance and had pedals and steering that were easy to use. But of all the things my grandpa has made, Grandma’s favorite is the Elevator that goes from the kitchen down to the basement and the deep freeze, laundry, and storage area. It is made of an old school locker operated by cables and pulleys.

Mel Gould worked for Foresight Industries, Inc.in Denver, Colorado for several decades. He was part of the Research and Development Department and was instrumental in helping to design, create, test, and implement new products and concepts that would change the way whole businesses would operate. Two of his designs were the Duckbill and Manta Ray Anchors, whose inspiration came from the anchors developed on the Christo Projects. There is another product that Mel played a huge role in developing that I’m sure everyone has seen but perhaps hasn’t noticed. The Breakaway Mailbox Support System can be found across the U.S. and around the world. The thing that makes these supports so special is that, when a vehicle runs into them, rather than sliding up the hood and through the windshield, they actually tumble over the vehicle’s hood and roof, potentially saving the lives of those inside the vehicle.

This brilliant and ingenious man was raised on a chicken farm in San Louis Obispo, California and went to a one-room schoolhouse. Many of the creations he made as an adult were first imagined as a child. He made many models as a boy. For example, the idea for the 8-wheeler was made from foam rubber airplane tires and bailing wire. The idea for the 3-wheeled car came to him while he was bored in class and created one out of erasers. These elementary school models later became the ”Purple People Eater” and the “Moon Beam”.

At the age of ten, he began working on cars. His first was an old Model T frame and engine with no body. His dad would only allow him a single gallon gas tank so he couldn’t wander too far from home. In high school he came across a car that couldn’t be licensed or street legal so he chopped it down, put dual tires on it, added a rumble seat and then owned a dune buggy that would trek the California hills like nobody’s business.

Mel graduated from Atascadero High School in 1949 and joined the U.S. Air Force in 1951. During the Korean War he was stationed in Thule, Greenland. He requested assignment as a heavy equipment operator but was made a cook. That, however, was not a loss, because even today he can make some amazing biscuits and gravy and a corn chowder you could live on. While in the military, he had an idea for a one man band. It would not be fulfilled until after he got out of the service in 1954 as an E-6 Staff Sergeant. Mel went on to create several variations of the one man band, which is designed so he can play the drums and bass guitar with his feet; the saxophone, clarinet, keyboard, guitar or accordion with his hands; leaving him the ability to sing or play the saxophone, clarinet, or harmonica with his mouth. He has performed at many churches, schools and nursing homes locally

My grandparents met at a church in Cheyenne and were married at the Herford Ranch just east of Cheyenne where my grandma was raised. In June 2015 they will have been married for sixty-one years, having spent most of them on the Gould property ten miles east of Cheyenne on the nation’s first transcontinental road, the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Highway 30).

I am very proud of my grandparents and believe that Mel Gould’s creativity and ingenuity has bettered the world in many different ways. I hope you enjoyed the tour and that you come to realize that there’s a little genius in all of us, it’s all in how you choose to view the world and the junk in it.