FARMINGTON – With the help of a crane and flatbed, Morty the moose, who has encouraged tourists to stop at the Mountain View Chocolate Shoppe for the past three years, will soon travel with the shop up Wilton Road to 112 Oakes St.

After the smaller, original Morty was run over by a snowplow, owner Pam West decided he needed a “big brother” and commissioned a New Vineyard chain saw artist to create the new Morty. The antlers were found by West’s son on a hunting trip to Canada, the center of the moose was carved from a tree felled in a cemetery in Livermore Falls, and the legs were taken from four trees – one from each boundary corner on West’s New Vineyard property, she said.

With a moose logo for her candy shop, Morty became a community project, she said. A naming contest was held with culinary students at Foster Technology Center choosing the winner.

Morty will continue as a sentinel outside the new shop, but he might be missed on Wilton Road.

“He’s become a landmark with students at the university giving directions by saying ‘once you reach the moose, the university is just up the road,'” West said.