Gorilla on the Golf Course!

Great golf courses not only offer a variety of hole designs and natural features, but unique personalities. Twin Lakes Golf Club (TLGC) provides plenty of panache, thanks to a vintage, concrete gorilla and elk that have found a new home at the nine-hole course.

“I’ve been getting a lot of feedback, mainly positive, about the animals,” said Angie Kalkwarf, who manages the TLGC clubhouse. “People say they add a lot of character to the course.”

The animals (which will soon be joined by a concrete buffalo, hippo and tiger) bring back fond memories for many locals. The animals were the creation of Arthur “Art” Caffrey (1902-1965), a sculptor and oil painter who farmed southwest of Jolley.

In the early 1950s, Caffrey started designing and building larger-than-life exotic animals and other whimsical creations. Some were wooden, like a 16-foot totem pole, and a bison (inspired entirely by encyclopedia photographs and a classic buffalo nickel), that Caffrey carved from cottonwood logs with a hatchet.

Others were made of concrete, including a hippopotamus, big-horn ram, galloping zebra, camel, tiger, moose, buck deer, elk, polar bear, rhinoceros, gorilla and buffalo. “Art’s Art” attracted thousands of visitors to his farmer for the next 15 years.

“Art Caffrey made about one animal a year for many years,” said Tom Hildreth, whose family owns and operates Hildreth Company, an excavation and underground utility contracting business in Rockwell City. “He was quite a phenomenon in Calhoun County.”

The Hildreth family, who has owned five of Caffrey’s animal sculptures since the mid-1980s, recently donated the collection to the TLGC. “This is a unique opportunity to preserve local history,” said Hildreth’s wife, Theresa, who serves as the executive director of the Calhoun County Economic Development Corporation.

Preserving local history

TLGC Superintendent Wade Voith is glad Tom Hildreth stopped by the golf course in the summer of 2023. When Hildreth mentioned he was looking for a home for Art’s Art and wanted the collection to stay together, Voith didn’t hesitate. “I was excited to have these animals come here. They’re quirky, fun and an important part of local history.”

Voith remembers visiting Art’s Art when he was a kid. In the summer of 2024, the gorilla moved to its new spot in the out-of-bounds area by hole 6. The elk peers out from a space between holes 8 and 9.

This isn’t the first time TLGC has added unique art to the course. A miniature windmill graces hole 4, while a miniature lighthouse stands near hole 1.

“That lighthouse has been a big hit,” said Voith, an instructional coach at the South Central Middle School in Rockwell City. “Young people absolutely love the animals from Art’s Art, too. I want keep offering things that encourage people to golf at TLGC.”

Farm produced crops and art  

Art’s Art took root decades ago in rural Iowa. Art Caffrey was born at Armstrong, Iowa, in 1902. When he was a young boy, his parents separated. By the time he was nine years old, his mother died, and Caffrey went to live with his uncle, Arthur Haynes, and aunt near Farnhamville.

Caffrey graduated from Farnhamville High School in 1922. The high school yearbook, which listed him as the class artist, featured many of his cartoons and drawings. “As a kid, I liked to sit around on a stump and draw, but the Haynes thought that a silly waste of time,” Caffrey told a Des Moines Register reporter in the 1950s. “I kept on drawing when I could, though.”

Caffrey continued to work on his aunt and uncle’s farm until they passed away. He also worked on the painting crew for the Chicago and North Western railroad. In 1944, Caffrey purchased a farm southwest of Jolley, where he created his artwork in a one-car garage heated by a pot-bellied stove.

“A capable, hard-working farmer, Caffrey made the place pay for itself in three years,” noted an article in the June 15, 1954, issue of the Des Moines Register. This gave him the freedom to pursue his art hobby each winter.

“Every time we had company, we’d take them to see Art’s Art,” said Brian Betten, whose family has farmed near the former Caffrey farm for years. “Art loved to visit and show you all his gizmos.”

Al Hepp of Rockwell City enjoyed visiting Art’s Art as a child. He recalled a rope swing connected to a cottonwood tree that allowed the rider to swing over the dredge ditch. “Art also had a building full of trinkets and Indian artifacts. It was an exciting place to visit.”

After Caffrey married Viola (Morrison) Caffrey of Rockwell City, in 1955, the couple enjoyed hosting visitors of all ages. Jo (Peterson) Grodahl of rural Lytton, who grew up in Sac City, experienced Art’s Art when she was about four or five years old, around 1964-65.

“I vividly remember going to see Art’s Art with my grandma, Alice Lee, and her sister Leona Boyd, who lived in Lytton. I had never been to a zoo or anything like that, so it was my first exposure to any kind of animals like that.”

The 1954 Des Moines Register article noted that Caffrey didn’t charge admission but kept a small wishing-well barrel by his workshop where visitors could donate money towards the purchase of materials. “We don’t have a barrel of money, but we have a barrel of fun,” Caffrey said.

Thousands of visitors flocked to Art’s Art

The Rockwell City Advocate featured a picture of Caffrey with his large hippo on the front page of the November 17, 1960, edition.

“He starts his figures after making a scale drawing from actual photographs. He builds a strong, wooden frame, shapes it with woven wire and a second layer of finer wire, covers it with his own cement mix formula, and uses a special paint to add the finishing touches,” noted the article. “Although he has had no formal art training, Art’s figures are well-proportioned and lifelike.”

Caffrey pursued his hobby from January until spring each year. “In addition to his animal figures, Art has considerable talent as a painter of artistic pictures,” the newspaper noted.  

Since 1953, more than 16,000 visitors had signed Caffrey’s guest register, with guests from Lebanon, New Guinea, Finland, Africa, Sweden, Guam and Panama signing in, the newspaper noted. In 1960 alone, nearly 3,000 people from 44 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as France to Canada, visited Art’s Art.

While Grodahl doesn’t remember meeting Caffrey, his artwork made a huge impression on her. “He certainly enjoyed having people come out to his farm to see his creations. I would like to think he would love that they are still being enjoyed today.”

Miniature “zoo” becomes favorite photo opp

After Caffrey died at age 63 in 1965, the animals (including the rhino, buffalo, polar bear, camel, tiger, big-horn ram, deer, moose and hippo) found a new home in mid-June 1966 at the Fort Museum, which had been built just a few years before.

The sculptures weighed 5 tons each, according to the June 16, 1966, edition of the Fort Dodge Messenger. While thousands of museum visitors enjoyed the animals through the years, Fort Museum leaders decided by 1985 that it was no longer feasible to keep the animals. Some were hauled to the dump. Art Gleason of Fort Dodge saved a few, including the camel and mountain goat.

When Martin Hildreth of Rockwell City heard about the sculptures’ impending doom, he decided to rescue the remaining concrete animals. It took two days to bring them to his home at Rockwell City, using a backhoe and low-boy truck, according to “Rescue Effort Produces Unique Rockwell City Backyard Zoo” in the March 30, 1987, edition of the Fort Dodge Messenger.

“We brought the bison over first,” said Tom Hildreth, who noted that Caffrey had been a regular customer at the garage Hildreth had operated on the west edge of Rockwell City with his father. “As we drove along Highway 20, in the rearview mirror we could see the brake lights flash on cars as they passed, and the driver realized there was a bison on the truck.”

The miniature “zoo” remained at Martin Hildreth’s home for nearly 40 years. The animals all received a fresh coat of paint about 20 years ago, thanks to Dale Gentry, an art teacher in the Rockwell City school district.

After Martin Hildreth passed away in 2023, his family decided it was time to find a new home for this one-of-a-kind collection. Golfers at TLGC enjoy spotting the animals as they play the course. “They’ve become a favorite photo opp,” Kalkwarf said. “I love the history of these animals and am grateful the TLGC was the recipient of this unique artwork.”

Preservation of these works of art has now become a mission for some admirers. "I recently spoke with Ray "Bubba" Sorensen, the Freedom Rock Painter, and we are commissioning the talents of Bubba to repaint and restore the Art's Art animals," explained Hildreth. "We hope to raise the funds through private donations and grant applications for historic preservation and Iowa tourism to give some new life and color to Art's creations."

Anyone interested in contributing to the Art's Art Restoration Project can contact Tom Hildreth. 

written by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby