The Limestone Carvings

In 1958-59, Sunset Zoo benefited from a major project in cooperation with the K-State art department. The Sertoma club had proposed having some sculptures of animals carved. J. Cranston Heintzelman, a professor in the Architecture and Allied Arts Department, offered his best art students to do the carving.

Fifty tons of Kansas limestone were brought to campus and the roof of an engineering barracks was removed so the stone could be lifted into the building by a crane.

Ruth Kirtland carved an enormous bison that now sits at the zoo entrance. Don Filby carved a bear that sits on a 12-foot pedestal just outside the fence at the top of the prairie dog enclosure. A third stone was carved into a pair of lions in 1959.