Sculptor creates another stone truck tougher than “Built Ford Tough”

By James Raia
Eight years after he made his first stone truck, Chris Miller has created another. He’s also kept Ford Motor Company true to its word in an astonishing way.

Miller, a sculptor who lives in Maple Corner, a hamlet outside Calais, Vermont, began carving about 45 years ago. He works in granite, wood and marble, and his work is featured in private collections and sculpture galleries.

Appreciative of vintage cars and trucks, particularly those abandoned and accumulating patina, Miller’s first stone truck was built near his home in 2012. It was inspired by a stone creation of a Volkswagen Beetle built in Ithaca, New York.

Miller’s just-completed second truck was commissioned and is far more elaborate. It’s perched in McDonough, Georgia, located 30 minutes south of Atlanta on I-75, in front of the city’s new car wash.

Like his first stone truck, Miller’s new creation was a hefty task. It took 45,000 pounds of stone and 350 hours of work (280 of Miller’s and 70 hours of others’ labor). The project also included the consumption of eight gallons of Gatorade.

Ford spent millions of dollars on research and introduced a new slogan in 1998, “Built to Last.” Ford also began to use the term “Built Ford Tough” promoting its trucks. And Ford trucks generally last a long time, although likely not as long as a Ford truck made in stone.

According to his bio, Miller is primarily self-taught, although he studied art in college. He also studied anatomy and sculpture with the late Lothar Werslin of Sandgate, VT., and drawing and anatomy under Billy Brauer of Warren, VT. He’s collaborated with several stone sculptors in nearby Barre, VT.

Miller’s stone truck was inspired by a vintage truck he viewed while combining a vacation and hopeful inspiration country voyage into rural Georgia. He found what he was seeking – a 1940 Ford truck aging well. The result: Miller’s second monolithic stone truck perfectly content on the side of the road.

View a time-lapse video of the making of the truck below.