Penticton's Alice the T-Rex is a hit far and wide

Kevin Stone’s 50-foot-long, 17,000-pound stainless steel T-Rex has been a hit with locals and travellers from far and wide.

Stone told iNFOnews.ca he has received an overwhelmingly positive response to ‘Alice’ the T-Rex.

“It's been absolutely amazing,” he said.

Local residents have been flocking to Alice to take photos since the piece was revealed in September, with many posting very creative edits to social media. 

“Lots of people have been doing some photoshopping and some memes,” he said. “The local Jeep dealership there did a meme with… a Jurassic Jeep, and they took pictures of Alice and photoshopped her running beside the Jeep just like in Jurassic Park. It was really, really awesome.”

Some spectators have even travelled across the province to come see Alice in all her glory. 

Blayne Bird and Chantel Gordon made a pitstop to see Alice on their way up from Tofino. Bird gets hired for his own T-Rex costumes at festivals. He said he couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to take a picture with Alice all dressed up.

“We saw an article about Alice and we had time to stop by and T-rex,” Bird said.

Some residents have even shared important local history. Stone was told a coincidental story by a local resident and previous property owner of Alice's home. 

“They messaged me, and they said, 'Kevin, we just wanted to let you know that we think your sculpture, Alice, is so fantastic. And we wanted to give you a little history,'” he said.

The residents explained that their grandparents were the founders of the Penticton property.

“Their grandmother was named Alice. And they said the running joke in the family was that Alice is back home now,” Stone said.

The late owners of the property, Alice and her husband, are memorialized on a commemorative bench, on KBH trail, in front of where Alice the T-Rex now stands.

Alice was made as a commissioned piece for a local Penticton resident who is unaffiliated to Alice and her husband. 

“(He) reached out to me and said…'my childhood dream has always been to have a big giant chrome T-Rex.' I said, 'well, I can make that happen,'” Stone said. “We talked and one thing led to another, and he pulled the trigger, and we built Alice.”

The T-Rex took Stone, his wife Michelle and their apprentice two years to complete.

Stone said the long hours were worth it not only to see his client satisfied, but also to see Alice being enjoyed by the public.

“I absolutely love the fact that the public gets to enjoy it because many of my large pieces have not been in the public and have gone to private (properties),” Stone said. “I love the fact that everybody can enjoy it and so, I'm just, I'm proud.”

The process of making Alice was painstaking work, even up to her instalment.

“Michelle and I were both nervous installing it because we had never seen it assembled," Stone said. "So that was a bit nerve wracking. Not even knowing if we had a real T-Rex or not. We didn't know what it would look like until it was finally assembled.”

Although it took a lot of work to get her installed, Alice may not be around forever. Spectators should soak her up while they can, Stone said. 

“Whether Alice will stay in Penticton I'm not sure, that'll be up to the owner. But the original destination of Alice was to be in the Cayman Islands,” Stone explained. “There is a potential that her final destination still could be the Cayman Islands.”

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