There was a craze of statue building across the state, lame-o attempts to pull in tourists, Tommy the Turtle, the giant gorilla outside Mandan, a bison near Jamestown, a huge Holstein cow outside Salem...
.
and in my own hometown Earl Bunyan, Paul's cowboy brother.
He used to hold a big wooden six-shooter and a coil of rope but time and the p.c. police took care of that. Now it's a cane and a branding iron.
Believe it or not a deceased married couple are interred in the rock cairn he stands on...it was their wish to have the statue built and be buried under it.