Desert Tortoise (25 ft long boulder sculpture)

Fernley, Nevada, United States

Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Desert Tortoise is a sculpture by local artist Pan Pantoja and Fernley students, made for Main Street Park in Fernley, Nevada, in 2014. Made of quarry boulders and painted ceramic tiles, it was described as 25 feet long and 17 feet tall.

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Desert Tortoise (25 ft long boulder sculpture)

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Site-level location · 39.6064° N, 119.2383° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Fernley, Nevada, sits on the road to Burning Man, and its Desert Tortoise grew out of that connection. It was made for Main Street Park, now called Main Street Art Park, through Big Art for Small Towns, a collaboration of the Black Rock Arts Foundation, Burning Man Project and the City of Fernley.

Black Rock Arts Foundation said in 2014 that several thousand people pass through Fernley each year on their way to Burning Man, and that the program aimed to share the cultural and economic benefits with surrounding communities. The project was funded in part by a $75,000 National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant.

The program had two phases. In the first, two visiting artworks, Bottlecap Gazebo and Rockspinner 6, were chosen for temporary installation. In the second, local artist Pan Pantoja was selected, after a request for proposals begun in 2013, to work with Fernley residents on an original piece reflecting the town.

The result is a tortoise, referencing local wildlife. Black Rock Arts Foundation described it in 2014 as 25 feet long and 17 feet tall, crafted from boulders from a local quarry. Its shell carries painted ceramic tiles, each 4 inches by 4 inches, with images reflecting Fernley's culture. Pantoja worked with students from every school in Fernley and with residents at a community painting night.

The foundation scheduled an opening reception for August 7, 2014. In 2019 Burning Man's journal listed the piece as refurbished and still at the park. Travel Nevada's current page for the park also lists the Desert Tortoise. The gazebo has since gone: the Fernley Reporter said in 2026 that a concrete pad in the park is where it once stood.

Travel Nevada describes the park as a paved walkway past several artworks, some once featured at Burning Man and others made by the local community.

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