It’s The World’s Biggest Weather Vane And It’s Right Here In Abilene
Do you know the eight flat steel flying Buffalo that fly high above Frontier Texas? They are the best-kept secret in the world. Why are they the best-kept secret? It’s because each one of the “Flying Buffalo” is 8 feet tall, 12 feet long, and each one weighs 1,000 pounds. Together this work of art is over 250 feet long making it the biggest working weather vane in the world.
LOOK: The World's Biggest Weather Vane Is In Abilene
The most intriguing part is that the Flying Buffalo was designed and built right here in Abilene by an Abilene company known as Rentech Boilers on Abilene’s east side.
The Rentech team not only designed but installed the Buffalo, and yes they’re a work of art and an honest to goodness working weather vane.
So, when you see all eight of the buffalo facing one direction (just like real live Buffalo) they are facing into the wind. Why flying Buffalo you may ask, it’s because, in real life, Buffalo and or Bison face into storms when bad weather comes around. Unlike horses, cattle, sheep, or goats that naturally face away from storms and try to get away from the adverse weather conditions.
Now for the reason that these herd animals run into storms, it’s because their biological makeup equips them to thrive in winter storms and summer heat. An example is a bison will turn into a snowstorm and will continue running into the storm, and because they instinctively know that walking into the storm will get them out of the storm quicker.
As for the other Buffalo sculptures at frontier Texas they were sculpted by artist TD Kelsey. The huge Buffalo sculpture outside is known as “Testing the Texas Wind” the Buffalo herding sculpture inside is titled “Crossing Cat Claw Creek.”
Each one of the riders depicts a different ethnicity white, black, hispanic, and so forth and the other cool part is that inside each one of those animals is a bronze heart. All of the other sculptures and or works of art were not the imagination of TD Kelsey they were actual buffalo, cattle, horses, and real people that he depicted working on his ranch.