When Creativity Strikes Man Makes His Humor The Mother Of Invention|

A little soldering, some grease, and it was done.

“That’ll draw some attention,” said Ellis Vawter, stepping back to admire his creation.

In front of him, an oil well jackpump trundled up and down over a wellhead.

Black gold struck in Rose Lake?

Nope. Vawter’s handiwork is a fake.

Vawter was so impressed with the Wyoming landscape on a recent trip that he decided to recreate a little piece of it: one of the ubiquitous oil jackpumps bobbing up and down on the plains.

“It’ll look kind of real from the road, won’t it?” asked the retired St. Maries auto parts dealer.

He built the 10-foot-long device out of spare parts: a TV aerial, plywood and a rotisserie motor he bought at a yard sale for 50 cents. It took a week to build.

Assembled, the rig looks real, except that it waggles a bit in the wind. Vawter set it up next to his son’s Conoco station in Rose Lake, about 18 miles east of Coeur d’Alene. It sits in a field, alongside a 55-gallon drum for realism. A stove pipe and some railroad scrap serve as a mock wellhead.

“We have permission to drill right here,” Vawter joked. “I tried to get my neighbor to put it on his land. He thought it was dumb.”

“It’ll attract attention, but I doubt people

will come here to see it,” said Vawter’s son, Les. “There will be a lot of joking from my morning coffee crowd.”

Ellis Vawter said he’s not sure what his next project will be. He’d like to build three iron elk to perch on a hillside above his home. Or maybe a 16-foot-tall toilet.

“I have lots of time,” he said.

For now, he said, he’s content with his mock pump.

“I hope the environmentalists don’t get after me for this,” he said.