Before an icon of the former oil capital of the world was turned into a literal idol of Elon Musk in May, Kurt Stenstrom needed someone to ride a cherry picker lift 70 feet in the air to measure the statue's face. Built in 1966, Tulsa, Oklahoma's apartment building-sized Golden Driller statue has been decorated frequently over the years to promote everything from new parks to rock n roll radio stations. But no one had ever decorated the face. So someone needed to measure it first.

Measurements secured, Stenstrom fired up Photoshop on his Mac mini. He tweaked a composite image of Musk's face he'd created during an all-nighter the previous night. The lithography company he works for had just one more day to dress the Driller up like Musk before an event where Tulsa officials would announce their push to convince Tesla to build its new Cybertruck factory there, so Stenstrom needed to work fast.

The effort to woo Tesla would ultimately fail; the company will instead build the factory just outside of Austin, Texas. The decision simply came down to some of his key employees wanting to move there over Tulsa, Musk told Automotive News. It's hard to imagine Tulsa ever really had a chance.