Dear Buck:
It’s always been a curiosity to me, and I’m guessing that many people who travel south out of Loveland down Interstate 25 have noticed the metal camel-shaped sign just south of Berthoud’s Colo. 56 interchange on the west side of the road. What can you tell me about it?
Signed: Can’t Help But Look
Dear Can’t Help But Look:
That would be Bert.
Bert is a 12-foot-tall silhouette of a camel who has stood there for about 20 years. If it looks like he’s gazing at the big billboard next to him, it’s because he is, although the billboard has changed since he took up his position.
Phil Auserehl, owner of Castle Cleaning and Oriental Rug Co. in Berthoud, explained that he contracted with Charlotte and Ben Zink of Zink Metal Art to build the camel as an advertising gimmick.
“It was pretty much there to make you do a double take,” Auserehl said.
Castle Cleaning and Oriental Rug Co. shared the nearby billboard with L&M Imports, a Berthoud company that’s no longer in business.
“That fellow had Asian imports, so the camel kind of matched both of our products,” Auserehl said.
The two companies’ signs no longer occupy the billboard – it now advertises a law firm – but the camel’s still there.
“It’s heavy-gauge steel. Nobody could take it because it’s too big and heavy, and it’s in the ground in concrete. That’s why it’s still there,” he said. “He ain’t going nowhere.”
Auserehl doesn’t remember exactly when the camel went up, but Charlotte Zink said it must have been after 2000, when she and her husband brought their metal-art business to Berthoud.
The Zinks work as a team: She draws the designs, and he cuts them out. Charlotte Zink remembers that the design for the camel came out of her head.
“I just drew it on the sheet (metal), and Ben has a plasma cutter, and he cut along the lines I made,” she said.
The Zinks now have plenty of their work displayed in public, but Charlotte Zink said she still likes to look at the camel whenever she’s on the interstate.
“I look when I’m driving friends to the airport. We make sure to point him out,” she said.
Zink and Auserehl said they bartered for the camel – they created and installed Bert, and Auserehl cleaned some rugs for them.
But the real value of the eye-catching outline?
“He’s priceless. That dude is priceless,” Auserehl said.
The camel succeeded in attracting attention to his company, which has been in Berthoud since 1980, Auserehl said.
The business occupies a historic brick building at 565 Third St. in downtown Berthoud, where Auserehl restores and hand-washes Persian and Oriental rugs, using a system that he invented. He also has a wide variety of handmade rugs for sale, many more than 100 years old, and some new.
“I have probably the largest inventory of handmade Oriental rugs that you’ll see in your life,” he said. “We’re kind of world-famous.”
Auserehl said he was planning to put on a contest in Berthoud to name the camel, but that never came about.
“My vote was going to be Bert, short for Berthoud,” he said.
After a while, Auserehl changed the billboard and put up the words to the John Lennon song “Imagine.”
“There was a big windstorm that knocked the billboard apart. I had to put something up there, so I decided to pay tribute to John Lennon’s song … until the next big wind came along,” he said.
Why that song?
“Can you think of a better one?” he said. “It was just good vibes.”
For now, it seems that Bert will stay put, no matter what the billboard says.
“The camel’s free-range; he doesn’t eat much,” Auserehl said. “He’s cool. He’s got squatter’s rights now.”
Buck Thompson finds answers to questions regarding life in Loveland. Send your questions to news@reporter-herald.com with Dear Buck in the subject line, or write to Reporter-Herald — Buck Thompson, at P.O. Box Y, Berthoud, CO 80513.
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Dear Buck: What’s the story with the camel sign on I-25 near the Berthoud exit? - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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