We got you, Babe

 

 

Members of the Rotary Club of Bemidji unveil the new and improved statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

For a small town in the icy hinterlands, Bemidji, Minn., USA, attracts its fair share of tourists. Many come for the beauty of the surrounding lake country, but some turn up to see a couple of quirky statues erected by local Rotarians about 70 years ago. In fact, Bemidji residents like to boast that the giant likenesses of mythical hero Paul Bunyan and his trusty companion, Babe the Blue Ox, are among the most photographed statues in the United States, right up there behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Until recently, though, the roadside statues had seen better days. Years of freezing and thawing had caused the ground beneath their foundations to shift. More seriously, a large crack had appeared on Babe’s blue body, allowing water to seep into his belly. Lori Paris, a member of the Rotary Club of Bemidji and executive director of the local chamber of commerce, told her fellow Rotarians that Babe, who stands 15 feet tall at the shoulder, was on the verge of collapse.

“Hearing that, we thought, gosh, we started Babe,” says Bemidji club member Warren Larson. “There was no way we were going to let that happen.”

The Rotarians sprang into action, working with the chamber of commerce and the city council on a fundraising campaign to save the statue. Members of the Bemidji club wrote letters to potential contributors, sold Save Babe T-shirts, and set up donation jars. The drive raised $50,000, with Babe fans sending contributions from as far away as Norway. Another $68,000 was secured through a federal scenic byways grant.

The money was enough to restore the Babe statue, which the Bemidji club had helped commission for the community’s 1938 winter carnival. Babe and Paul Bunyan were meant to symbolize the lumberjack culture that pervaded Bemidji when it was still a logging town. In the early years, Babe was mounted on the back of a truck to be displayed in parades and carried thousands of miles around the country in an effort to promote Bemidji as a tourist destination.

Today, he entertains visitors with his feet firmly planted on the side of a Bemidji road. And the Rotarians who saved him contribute some entertainment value themselves.

At Babe’s rededication ceremony in June, Larson and fellow club member Dennis Doeden sang an altered version of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe.” Among the lyrics: “Your legs were weak/Your stomach was cracked/If we let you go, Babe/We’d never get you back.”

The Bemidji crooners have not yet been signed to a major record label.