GILLETTE - Longtime Campbell County resident Ray Holzer isn't the only person who collects vehicle license plates.

But unlike other plate collectors, he does not nail them up on the wall of his garage. Holzer's use for old plates is to modify them and turn them into gifts.

Holzer is a self-described workaholic. At the age of 70, he still spends long hours on heavy equipment as a worker in the coal-bed methane fields.

"I've worked construction all my adult life," said the tall, muscular man. "I grew up in North Dakota. We moved to Gillette in 1969, and I've been working ever since."

Like many addicted to work, Holzer often found his off-hours somewhat boring. He says he can only watch so much television.

"I kinda got underfoot with nothing else to do," he said, flashing a grin toward his wife, Alice. "So, when a guy from North Dakota sent me a plate that he had enclosed in a wooden frame and added a handle to make it look like a dust pan wall hanging, I said to myself, 'I think I can do that.'"

In 2004, Holzer make his first "dust pan plaque," and he has been making them ever since. Since his first attempt, he has made about 40 of the license plate/dust pan wall plaques.

He gave one of his first to his 96-year-old neighbor, who had admired the one from North Dakota. The neighbor offered to pay for it, but Holzer refused, telling her he wasn't in the craft to make money.

"I just give them away," he said. "The pleasure people show when I make them is payment enough. The next day my neighbor came over and asked me to make one for her two daughters, and she brought over a big angel food cake. That was great."

Holzer's two sisters in North Dakota each have one of the creations. All his nieces and nephews have put their names in the pot for some, and friends and acquaintances in Campbell and Johnson counties enjoy his craft.

Holzer said it only takes about 30 minutes to finish the plaques. The frame is made of scrap pieces of wood, mostly pine.

"Then all the recipient has to do is acquire a hook and a nail and hang it on a wall," he said.

One of the most interesting license plates Holzer turned into a plaque was a yellow Wyoming plate which has not be made for many years. The plate meant a great deal to the daughter of the original owner, as it is the only material possession she has which belonged to her late father.

"It gave me a very good feeling to do that for her," Holzer said.