Volunteers from the Illinois Route 66 Association this weekend repainted the 19-foot-tall Paul Bunyan fiberglass statue on Route 66 in downtown Atlanta, Ill., reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
The newspaper reported that help came from Michigan and Iowa, as well as the Land of Lincoln.
“I’m impressed by what people want to do to help,” said John Weiss, chair of the preservation committee of the Route 66 Association of Illinois and organizer of the work day. Those who are interested in getting involved can visit www.il66assoc.org for more information.
“It’s my wife’s birthday and it’s what she wanted,” said Joe Foster, who traveled from Urbandale, Iowa, with wife, Kara, and daughter, Ella Hendricks, 8.
“Route 66 is my passion, and he’s grown to like it,” said Kara, who painted one of the statue’s arms and the mustard on the hot dog.
Bill Kelley, who grew up hearing stories of Route 66 from his parents, came from Eastpointe, Mich., to help.
“Disneyworld and Vegas aren’t for everybody,” said Kelley of his passion for Route 66.
While the reporter and a film crew was talking to a local businessman about the statue’s tourism impact, two carloads of people stopped to have their photographs taken in front of it. And a German couple also stopped on Saturday.
The statue once graced a restaurant — also on Route 66 — in Cicero, Ill., for nearly 40 years. When the restaurant changed hands, preservationists moved the statue to downtown Atlanta.
The Bunyan statue is an example of “Muffler Men” fiberglass statues that were all over the country from the 1940s to the ’60s. RoadsideAmerica.com boasts a map of all of these statues.
The Pantagraph’s story features photos from the repainting project. A reader also emailed a few pictures.
(Photos courtesy of Mike Cummings)
Hi there, We shall look forward to seeing Paul Bunyan as we pass along Route 66, when we take part in the ‘Route 66 Mother Road Radio Tour’ in June 2013. WRLR in Round Lake Heights and Forest FM in the U.K. are hoping to meet up with musicians and radio people from the 50’s and 60’s who have a story to tell of what it was like living along such an interesting road back then. Paul Peters & Geoff Kemp (Fabulous 50’s Radio Show from the U.K.)
I think the Hot dog should be replaced with the Ax he originally held. This way he would look more like he did when he was originally created.
I disagree. If the statue began its professional life with a hot dog, keep it holding a hot dog. The point of those statues is they could be modified to their situations.
Hamlet Arthur Stephens, former owner of the Bunyon hot dog stand on Ogden in Cicero, died in June 2012 at the age of 89. His obituary at https://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/12968793-418/hot-dog-merchant-who-brought-giant-paul-bunyan-statue-to-route-66-dead-at-89.html describes some of the history of the popular eatery.
The Bunyan figure was moved to Atlanta, Illinois after Stephens retired in 2003.