BOZEMAN — The “Cars” movie is in Bozeman – hay bale style.
This year, a local farmer and his friend used hay bales to recreate a scene from the “Cars” movie, where characters Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater are being chased by a combine for tipping over tractors.
Bozeman farmers created Lightning McQueen and friends out of hay bales! This is their 4th year making community art.
“We went a little crazier than we have in the past,” said Gene Dusenberry.
Dusenberry, a third-generation Bozeman farmer, and his friend, Chris Wallace, are the minds behind the hay-bales-turned-cars. They are located on Dusenberry’s farm across the street from the Anderson School of Cottonwood.
“It just started with the idea of making a snowman out of round bales,” said Dusenberry.
In fact, this is the fourth year Dusenberry and Wallace have used hay to create something. “Last year, we made a John Deere tractor,” said Dusenberry.
MTN’s Esha Walia asked Dusenberry and Wallace why they decided to make these every year.
“Just for the fun of it. Be creative and give people something to talk about,” said Wallace.
“All the kids really enjoy it and get a kick out of it, so that gives us the inspiration to keep going with it,” said Dusenberry.
As to why they decided on the “Cars” movie as this year’s theme:
“I thought of the tractor tipping scene from ‘Cars’ and I was like ‘oh well we can make another tractor sticking straight up,’” said Dusenberry, referencing the tractor he created last year.
Dusenberry and Wallace then gave MTN a tour of each of the hay creations…starting with the tipped-over tractor, which they say was the hardest one to make.
“We started off with the base from our last tractor last year. We’ve got the hay bales going straight up. We put a framework to help keep it stable so the wind won’t knock it over,” said Wallace.
Then Tow Mater, a famous character from the ‘Cars’ movie, where the details were the highlight.
“He’s got one headlight and he’s missing another headlight. He’s got an air cleaner here,” said Dusenberry, showing the car. “His eyes, he’s looking over at Lightning McQueen.”
Then they showed Frank, which, in the “Cars” movie, is a combine chasing red car Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater for knocking over the tractors like the one shown above.
“This is obviously Frank, the combine. He’s made out of straws, big square bales, and round bales. We’ve got PVC pipes coming out of the top for the horns,” said Wallace.
“This was probably the easiest one to make out of all of them because it’s all big bales we can use the tractor to move around,” said Dusenberry.
Lastly, Wallace and Dusenberry showed off Lightning McQueen, the main character and bright red car in the “Cars” movie.
“We were having a hard time getting paint to get the bright red,” said Dusenberry. We were able to go to Sherwin-Williams and have them make up a paint color.”
“We cut the lightning bolt out of plywood and painted it yellow,” said Wallace, showing the lightning bolt on the side of the car.
Dusenberry and Wallace say their grateful to the Anderson School and Sherwin-Williams for providing some of the paint. They created a sign thanking Sherwin-Williams and showing the famous quote from the ‘Cars’ movie, “Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long.”
The hay creations will be up until at least next spring. Dusenberry and Wallace say they plan to continue the tradition but that “it’s going to be hard to top this year’s scene."
