Vermontasaurus
Encyclopedia
Vermontasaurus is a 25 feet (7.6 m), 122 feet (37.2 m) folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....

 representation of a dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 at the Post Mills Airport in the town of Thetford
Thetford, Vermont
Thetford is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States in the Connecticut River Valley. The population was 2,617 at the 2000 census. Villages within the town include East Thetford, North Thetford, Thetford Hill, Thetford Center, Rices Mills and Post Mills. The town office is in Thetford...

, Vermont. It is the creation of retired teacher and experimental balloon pilot, Brian Boland, together with a crew of volunteers, who used scrap lumber obtained from a collapsed portion of Boland's private museum and hot-air balloon manufacturing facility to build the sculpture, starting in June, 2010. Boland adopted the name, "Vermontasaurus," from the comment of an onlooker.

As of July, 2010 the State of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 and the town of Thetford had weighed in on whether the Vermontasaurus was a work of art or a structure that requires a permit. The state Division of Fire Safety prohibited people from being allowed underneath the sculpture, pending the approval of a structural engineer to attest that it was safe to do so. Subsequently, Vermont District Environmental Commission No. 3 granted a permit for the wooden dinosaur, ruling that it had no negative environmental impact under Vermont's Act 250. Despite an initial assertion that the structure would require a building permit, the town of Thetford waived the requirement, ruling that the structure is a work of art.
The sculpture received confirmation as a permitted use from Thetford's Development Review Board in an August, 2010 meeting attended by more than 50 people. The decision was controversial because such a large sculpture was not a use envisioned in the town's ordinances.

In October, 2011, three months after the State of Vermont ruled that the sculpture could remain in place, the tourist attraction's midsection collapsed. According to the Valley News, the sculpture is part of an eclectic collection of old cars, improvised vehicles connected with hot-air ballooning, and other curiosities that Boland has assembled at the Post Mills Airport.

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