You might drive past Bartlett, Neb., in Wheeler County, heading down U.S. Highway 281, and not know about the artistic treasure this eastern Sandhills community holds. It’s just two blocks off the highway, but it is marked only by a small, quaint sign.

Yet, when you drive up to the Mignery Sculpture Garden, with 50-plus bronze statues depicting Western life, you realize what a treasure this is. The unique garden is spread out on the hill lawn of the Wheeler County Museum in the old Wheeler County Courthouse. Developed by renowned artist and local son Herb Mignery, this obscure garden has more bronze statues per capita — one for every three residents in the town of 117 residents — than any other place in the world.

DEDICATED: Mignery dedicated the collection of unique bronze statues in honor of those everyday heroes in small rural towns such as Bartlett.

Mignery grew up on his family’s ranch in Bartlett, graduated from Wayne Teachers College in Wayne and became an illustrator in Hastings. His boss gave him some clay and a wheel for his birthday, and he taught himself how to sculpt. With no formal training, Mignery has become a master sculptor and a member of the Cowboy Artists of America and National Sculpture Society of America, with more than 75 statues and monuments to his name.

He has sculpted commissioned projects ranging from “Pioneer Award” for the Academy of Country Music to a 20-foot sculpture for the Hashknife Pony Express in Arizona. He has built monuments not only in Nebraska, but also Missouri, Hawaii, Colorado, New York, California, Wyoming, New Mexico and South Dakota.

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Now living in Colorado, he remains strongly tied to his roots in Bartlett, and the Sculpture Garden bearing his name, with the depictions of Western and ranch life, reflects those ties. One of the first pieces he donated to the community — “Silent Leather” — still serves as a centerpiece in the garden.

REAL LIFE: Mignery used recollections and remembrances of real-life people from his childhood to model many of the sculptures in the garden.

This sculpture garden has larger-than-life sculptures and some that are smaller, ranging from ranch life and cattle to small-town life and Native American culture.