Bourque Industrial’s Dinosaur Statue Draws Scores of Spectators
SAINT JOHN – In the front yard of Bourque Industrial Ltd. on the east side of Saint John, a mighty T-Rex dinosaur has arisen from extinction.
“There’s been a lot of drive-by traffic and all kinds of positive comments,” said John Borque, President of Bourque Industrial, located in the Grandview Industrial Park.
Bourque shared photos of the scrap-metal sculpture on his LinkedIn page Monday and since then has been viewed more than 21,000 times, with 375 likes and 51 comments.
The response has been extremely positive, with many people stopping by when driving to take pictures. A school bus even stopped to gaze upon the sculpture.
“One of the fellas in the yard noticed that they had stopped, and kids were all pressed up against the glass looking at it,” he said.
For years there had been talk about making something at Bourque, and last week they went for it instead of throwing out material for scrap.
“We had the material, we had a program, we just had to cut it out, put it together,” Bourque explained.
The individual steel plates were cut with slots, which then hooked together and then stiffened and shaped it up to form the 12-foot sculpture, scaled up from a four-foot, small-scale version.
“One of our detailers has had a small scale version of it on his desk,” said Bourque. “We were given it by the company that had provided us a piece of equipment, and they provided that as a sample of what could be done with the equipment,” he said.
Bourque hinted there are more interesting ideas on the horizon and that someone has already reached out wondering about the ability to purchase a sculpture – perhaps a new line of business for the custom fabrication shop.
“It was something to do that is different and we didn’t expect it to get good views and the comments that it’s getting. It got all kinds of people posting that they want to bring their grandkids by or their children by to take a picture with it or take a picture of it,” said Bourque. “It’s been pretty surprising the response we’re getting, and it’s been a pleasant surprise.”