Thunder Mountain Monument, Roadside sculpture site in Imlay, Nevada

Thunder Mountain Monument is a five-acre site on the south shoulder of Interstate 80 in Imlay, Nevada, where three stone-and-concrete buildings and more than 200 concrete sculptures remain. The structures incorporate found objects, and the photograph shows a multi-tiered form with a rough stone base faced in dark stones, shells and yellow paint, white bone-like arcs around a central round opening, and an open framework of weathered wooden poles with small dark human-like figures attached.

Frank Van Zant, born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on November 11, 1921, was a World War II veteran of the 7th Armored Division, badly burned in a tank battle outside Leipzig. He arrived in Imlay in 1969 and began assembling the monument, taking the name Rolling Mountain Thunder after an epiphany. Arson damaged the site in 1983, the year he was named Nevada's Artist of the Year; he died in 1989, and the site became a Nevada State Historic Site in 1992.

Van Zant, who identified as Creek Indian, took the name Rolling Mountain Thunder after an epiphany. The more than 200 concrete sculptures depict Native Americans, their protective spirits, massacres and injustices against them. Small dark human-like figures attached to the white arcs and wooden poles can be spotted from the grounds.

The site sits right beside Interstate 80 and is open for self-guided exploration year-round. Visitors can walk through the remaining structures and outdoor art installations at their own pace.

One framework forms a large handle, intended so the Great Spirit could carry the building away after Rolling Mountain Thunder's death. The third floor has a wall of antique bottles set as a stained-glass window, and other floors use antique windshields and bottles to let light in.