St. Anne's Crossing Winery bear

Kenwood, California, United States

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Animals and creatures

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 28-foot, 15-ton steel grizzly bear by Glen Ellen sculptor Bryan Tedrick stands at St. Anne's Crossing Winery on Sonoma Highway in Kenwood, California. Installed in January 2022, it includes steel salvaged from a winery tasting room lost in the 2019 Kincade Fire.

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St. Anne's Crossing Winery bear

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Site-level location · 38.4231° N, 122.5557° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The grizzly at St. Anne's Crossing is 28 feet tall, weighs about 15 tons and is partly made from the charred beams of a burned tasting room.

It stands at 8450 Sonoma Highway in Kenwood, in Sonoma Valley. The winery says it was commissioned directly from Glen Ellen sculptor Bryan Tedrick in 2019 and chose a bear because the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 took place in Sonoma Valley; the grizzly flag later became the basis of the California state flag. The winery says it was in development for more than 30 months at Tedrick's studio just down the road. The Sonoma Index-Tribune reports that the studio had itself been lost in the 2017 Nuns Fire.

Installation was scheduled to begin on January 19, 2022, and the rotating head was lifted into place by crane on January 24. Tedrick, who calls the piece Big Bad Bear, told the Index-Tribune: "The only specification I had was that it be ferocious." He gives the weight as 30,000 pounds. The newspaper describes the fur as cuts of water pipe shaped into "potato-chip form" and hand-hammered onto the body, and the inside as hollow.

Much of the steel is recycled. Tedrick lists water pipes for the fur, light standards from the city of Sonoma for the hands and feet, conveyor chain from a Cloverdale sawmill for the neck, and beams from the burned Soda Rock Winery tasting room for a lower leg. The North Bay Bohemian reports Tedrick calling it the largest piece he has completed, and the winery says it takes its place among the largest sculptures in Sonoma County.

Tedrick says the bear's meaning is "really as varied as the viewers." It is one of three large Tedrick animals at Wilson Artisan Wineries properties, alongside a coyote at Wilson Winery and a boar at Soda Rock Winery. The winery's website lists tasting hours of Thursday to Monday, 11am to 5pm.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

The bear stands in front of St. Anne's Crossing Winery on Sonoma Highway (CA-12) in Kenwood. The winery's website lists walk-in tastings Thursday to Monday, 11am to 5pm, last seating 4pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. The bear is on a commercial winery's grounds.

ACCESS

8450 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, California, on the grounds of St. Anne's Crossing Winery, fronting CA-12. It is on commercial property; the winery's website (2026) lists opening Thursday to Monday, 11am to 5pm.

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Animals and creatures

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13 km away

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