Wild West Rustic Furniture's signature feature returns

A local landmark has returned.

Wild West Rustic Furniture became well known for the massive chair in the parking lot in front of the store, where many folks stopped to take a photo with the unusually large piece.

“When people call, customers will say things like, ‘Yeah, I know where the big chair is,’" store owner Carol Folda said. “It's super recognizable and has been for years.”

Wild West Rustic Furniture has had two previous chairs, both built by a “Juniper Dave” Hopkins, who also built furniture for the store. True to his nickname, Hopkins would gather juniper wood to build the chairs. 

“He would find all this really cool juniper wood, big giant stuff,” Folda said. “Some of it was two feet around, all twisting.”

Both big chairs have since been sold to interested customers; the second sold in the spring. Folda and her husband Clay soon regretted selling the chair and set out to have a new one built. Hopkins had retired, leaving Folda’s son Cody and store employees Michael Peterson and Jamison Johnson to complete the new seat.

“We've worked with a gentleman out of New Mexico, and he brought us some of the biggest stuff that he had,” Cody said. “We got to cherry pick the best stuff out of it.”

The new chair measures a foot taller than the previous one, at 12 feet and weighs 1,500 pounds, about the weight of a dairy cow, according to the American Dairy Association. Because of its sheer size, the team transported the chair by forklift from the workshop behind the store to out front.

“We used a chainsaw to cut all of our grooves and all of our notches,” Cody said. “We had all four posts standing up, and we kind of tied them together, and then just kind of built it around the post standing up.”

Putting together the chair was no easy task; it took about a week and over 120 man-hours. Not to mention the danger of working with the equipment used.

“There's a lot more safety involved in this one, especially when you're using a chainsaw standing on a you know 10 foot platform,” Cody said. “A fall and the chainsaw landing on you could be pretty catastrophic too. We have other people working in the shop, and they needed to be conscious of what we're doing so they don't get hurt either.”

With the big chair back in its rightful position, Wild West Rustic Furniture is whole again.

“If someone calls, we'll say, ‘Oh, just look for the big chair in the parking lot,’" Carol said.

    Wild West Rustic Furniture employees move the newly built big chair from the workshop behind the store to the front parking lot.
  

    Cody Folda sits in the chair during a break while they build it.