Bison sculpture honors former airport director

Mark Kennedy says the new bison sculpture near the entrance to Billings Logan International Airport is a fitting monument to Bruce Putnam.

“Bruce was larger than life, and that piece is larger than life,” Kennedy said.

The 17-by-9-foot steel sculpture was dedicated on Aug. 31 in a short ceremony attended by about 150 people. It is meant to honor Putnam, the longtime airport director who died in 2012.

Kennedy, a friend of Putnam’s and a former member of the City Council and the Aviation and Transit Commission, was one of several speakers at the event, along with Mayor Tom Hanel, former Mayor Chuck Tooley and Tom Binford, Putnam’s successor at the airport.

The sculpture, meant to be suggestive of pictograph art, was created by Joliet artist Charles Ringer, with a stained-glass heart and heartline created by Billings artist Angela Babby.

Putnam, a native of South Dakota who spent most of his life in Montana, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Montana State University. Partly because of his abiding interest in Western history, he used to say how much he’d like to see a massive public-art project in Billings — a string of bison sculptures reaching from the airport to the Yellowstone River.

Not long before Putnam’s death, his friend and arts promoter Terry Zee Lee proposed to the Aviation and Transit Commission that it create a monument to Putnam.

The original idea was to have Ringer make three bison sculptures, one large bull and a smaller bison cow and a calf, to be paid for by the sale of small models of the works.

Binford said the commission got about halfway to its fundraising goal of $20,000 and decided to install the sculpture of the bison bull. Sales of the models will continue, and if enough money is raised the other two pieces could be added later on.

The bison sits just above the roundabout near the airport entrance, directly east of the “Ranger Rider of the Yellowstone” statue. The aviation commission used $10,000 from its discretionary fund to pay for the landscaping around the bison sculpture, as well as a platform and a plaque.

The plaque notes that Putnam, director of the city’s Aviation and Transit Department from 1979 to 2006, “desired to see artistic renderings of bison at the Airport he loved so much. He felt a representation of the bison would be the perfect way to welcome new and returning visitors to Montana, as well as those who live in the Billings area.”

Though it was Lee who suggested the memorial, she said it was “a labor of love on the part of many people.”

In addition to the speakers at the dedication, Michael Comesatnight drummed and sang songs in Putnam’s honor.

During the ceremony, Binford said, a member of the Fergus County High School class of 1964 — of which Putnam was a member — presented him with $450 that had been collected during a 50th class reunion this summer. They asked that the money be spent on the monument.

Kennedy said that the bison monument makes much more sense than naming a building at the airport after Putnam, which had been considered at one point. He said Putnam would have loved it if a visitor, preferably a child, saw the bison sculpture and started asking questions about it.

He said Putnam was a lifelong learner and would have liked nothing more than to know that his monument was the catalyst for someone else to learn something about the history of Montana and the West.

DETAILS: Nineteen-inch models of the bull bison sculpture are being sold for $500 and 11-inch models for $400, plus $30 for shipping.

The Billings Community Foundation is using its nonprofit status to serve as a “fiscal sponor” for the project. Orders can be placed with the Billings Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1255, Billings, MT 59103.

For more information about the project, or for help in placing an order, you can also call the airport administration office at 657-8495.

Comments

comments