GALLUP, New Mexico — A dismantled 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air now charges through the high desert as a 10-foot-tall steel hare. Sculptor Robert Wilson cut the classic sedan into fragments with a plasma torch, shaped its weathered body panels, and welded together a 1,280-pound jackrabbit titled Run. The finished monument captures the desert animal frozen mid-leap at the western edge of Babe Ruth Park. It stares directly toward Interstate 40.
Gallup commissioned the sculpture to mark the upcoming centennial of Route 66. The spark struck just two days before municipal officials contacted Wilson, when the artist spent an afternoon tracking jackrabbits across Albuquerque’s West Mesa trails. The comparison clicked immediately. Jackrabbits and vintage mid-century sedans shared the same desert endurance, speed, and heavy mechanical muscle. Wilson, who retired from a medical career in 2016 to pursue sculpture full-time, recognized the car's sweeping sheet metal as raw anatomy waiting to be rearranged.
Wilson refused to grind away seven decades of highway wear. Chipped paint, oxidized metal, and structural rust remain deliberately visible across the rabbit's torso, preserving the original vehicle's road history inside the animal form. Motorists who inspect the work up close find automotive relics masquerading as sinew and bone. The creature’s left eye is the Bel Air’s original dashboard speedometer, permanently set at 66 miles per hour. "RUN is meant to express the unexpected beauty found in re-used industrial materials," Wilson stated, urging travelers to study the paws and ears to identify which body panel forged each limb.
Positioned at Exit 22 off Interstate 40, the installation faces the historic El Rancho Hotel, a cornerstone of Gallup's mid-century highway identity that once housed Hollywood film crews filming westerns. Quirky roadside art and colossal statues have pulled motorists off the pavement for nearly a century. Run extends that American roadside tradition by recycling automotive history into regional wildlife.
Gallup municipal officials plan to showcase the sculpture as a primary landmark along the corridor as New Mexico rolls out commemorative driving routes for the Route 66 centennial.