FRANNIE, Wyoming — The town of Frannie is known as the biggest, little town in Wyoming, but it may soon also be known for its newest business: Empress Bronze Foundry.
“I love pouring the metal. It's mesmerizing. It's a beautiful process,” Emma Scott, the founder of the foundry, said on Wednesday. "The average person doesn't think about how a bronze statue is made.”
For Scott, the process is her life. The 22-year-old first moved to Cody a few years ago and started working at Caleco Foundry.
“I wanted to be a welder, and I found a job at Caleco Foundry, and I fell in love with bronze art and the process,” Scott said. “It feels surreal and pouring something that's gonna be on the earth for forever.”
But Calecowas destroyed in a fire at the beginning of the summer. Owner Bucky Hall said he was retiring after the fire.
So, Scott is just getting started, doing her first official pour for Empress Bronze Foundry on Wednesday.
"A lot of artists were scrambling to find a place to cast. And every (foundry) that's far and few between that are around, I guess. But with the help of a great community and a lot of good people, we're in business," Scott said. “Within four and a half months, I threw together a foundry and now we're up and operating."
She's using equipment that they were able to save from Caleco, and she has a few previous coworkers helping her out, including Kyle Bogan.
“We were talking about doing something like this prior to the (fire). We wanted to give ourselves a little bit of time and then the foundry burned down. We jumped feet first into the fire kind of thing,” Bogan said. "It's pretty cool. She's different, for sure."
Bogan had worked at Caleco for 10 years before it caught on fire. Scott said he has been a big help getting her foundry up and running.
"He's my free labor. I like to call him at the moment. So, he's been a big help through the entire process, he helped me get everything out here and do everything, I mean, from fixing everything to relining the burnout to all of it. So, without those guys, I'd be a one-man band, really," Scott said.
Scott is looking forward to carrying on the art and creating a legacy for the reason she works so hard.
“My daughter, she deserves the world so I'm trying to give it to her,” Scott said.
