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Saturday, August 9, 2008
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Renovation making Babe look stronger
Senior Reporter Even the most firm individual needs a little help to fight gravity and aging.
Faithful Babe, who has posed for countless photographs through the decades both outside the amusement part in Baxter and now at This Old Farm east of Brainerd, is getting a major makeover.
Water worked its way into the statue over the years pooling in pockets. Renovation work is removing the damaged skin and adding a physical presence appropriate for an ox capable of creating entire lake beds with his hooves.
About two feet has been added to Babe's rear end and his muscles are expected to be smoother when the work is done.
"You could see the ridges of the rebar," said artist Josh Porter, Avalon Studios, who is overseeing the work and doing the sculpting after a foam coat was sprayed all over Babe by Expert Insulation of Brainerd. The foam will help hide those ridges. Muscles were added and legs filled out. Shaping, shadows and highlights are expected to give Babe definition.
"He's been weightlifting the last weeks big time," said Alan Rademacher of This Old Farm.
The top coat that will be used is a truck bedliner colored blue. The shadows and highlights will be added with a spray gun.
Babe arrived in Brainerd in the summer of 1965, arriving by flat car from Kansas City, Mo. A photo in the Brainerd Dispatch shows him atop the rail car next to the historic water tower in Brainerd.
It took a number of rail lines moves to complete Babe's trip to Brainerd. The newspaper report from 1965 said the Missouri Pacific kept Babe on exhibit before the ox went to Omaha and the Rock Island railway took Babe to Northfield. He was picked up by the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern and taken to a junction north of Minneapolis and was picked up by the Northern Pacific for the last leg to Brainerd.
The Dispatch described Babe as glistening in the morning sun and "resplendent in three or four coats of Paul Bunyan blue."
Babe weighs about 5,000 pounds, is 16 feet high and about 26 feet long. The renovation work means he'll be a little longer now and there are plans to landscape the area around Babe. Photos taken next to the famed blue ox no doubt abound in photo albums and with the renovation that tradition will continue with a fresh Babe.
"This is a fun project," Porter said. "It's big."
The final paint work on Babe's face is expected to make him even more approachable. The Babe renovation is part of ongoing efforts at landscaping and updating amusement park rides at Paul Bunyan Land at This Old Farm.
On a related note, a new ox was added to the now 24-member Oxtrot herd throughout the lakes area, where people can see the public art works on display in a number of area communities.
The newest ox, at the Brainerd Lakes Area Welcome Center on Highway 371 south of Brainerd and Baxter, is part of a public naming contest. The winner, which will be picked Aug. 18, will receive an Oxtrot T-shirt.
The Brainerd Lakes Chamber reports "more than 3,500 people have visited the Oxtrot Web site with media coverage reaching as far away as Nebraska."
The Oxtrot was designed to bring together artists and sponsoring businesses for a public art display that could attract the interest of visitors and residents alike while ultimately raising funds for art education. Auction funds will go to the Crossing Arts Alliance for art classes for K-12 students here.
To that end, the ox statues that were not bought by a host business, will be offered at auction on Sept. 6 at Paul Bunyan Land. Additional prizes also will be awarded. Part of the prize contest comes from visiting the various ox statues, recording codes discovered there and submitting the information by mail or online at explorebrainerdlakes.com.
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
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