Hundreds of Swetsville Zoo items go up for auction as land sale looms

After almost 40 years in Timnath, Swetsville Zoo is set to be sold this month, marking the end of the line for one of Northern Colorado's favorite roadside attractions. It isn't too late, however, to walk away with a piece of the beloved sculpture park.

The sprawling property — and longtime home to Bill Swets' menagerie of welded "zoo" creatures — is the site of Fairlight Estate Sales' latest online auction, with hundreds of collectibles, a handful of cars and even a few of Bill's original sculptures up for sale.

The auction, which started online Monday and goes through 7 p.m. Friday, includes more than 400 items — everything from butter dishes and duck boots to a five-person tandem bicycle and an "autosaurus" car Bill welded into the shape of a dinosaur.

A link to the auction can be found at fairlightestatesales.com/swetsvillezoo.

The property's buyer, McCauley Development Group, plans to develop the land into a mixed-use "live, work, play community." While McCauley Development Group did not initially think it could keep the property's metal sculptures, those plans changed in September when managing partner Liz Newman told the Coloradoan it planned to keep and incorporate many of them into the property's redevelopment.

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This week's auction marks a final step for Swets, who said goodbye to the sculpture park and his nearly lifelong home in Timnath back in September. After tying up some loose ends, Swets closed the big yellow gates of the sculpture park that month. He planned to split his time between Texas and a property he recently purchased in northeastern Colorado, he told the Coloradoan at the time.

"It's time," Bill told the Coloradoan during a final interview on the property this fall. "It's time to get out."

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Timnath Swetsville Zoo items go up for auction ahead of land sale