Let me begin by mentioning an absolute travesty.
Paul Bunyan and Babe are being separated.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- After 45 years, Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are parting ways.
Giant statues of the Minnesota icons that stand at Paul Bunyan Amusement Center will be shipped to different locations when the theme park in Baxter, Minnesota, closes later this year.
The legendary logger, all 26 feet of him, is headed east about 12 miles to an agricultural tourism site called This Old Farm. There, he'll become the property of the nonprofit theater group Rhythm of the Rails.
The 27-foot-tall Babe will move just a block to greet patrons of a bowling alley soon to be renamed the Blue Ox Bowl.
Hard times forced Don McFarland, who owns the theme park and the nearby bowling alley, to break up the pair.
The theme park opened in 1950 with the giant lumberjack statue as its main fixture. Eight years later, Babe the Blue Ox joined him.
Since McFarland bought the park more than 20 years ago, attendance has dropped from 125,000 a year to 76,000. Tourism in the region, about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is down overall.
McFarland tried unsuccessfully to sell the business; finally, he decided to just give away 30 rides and the statues in exchange for his 100 employees keeping their jobs at This Old Farm.
McFarland received inquiries as far away as South Dakota and New York but finally settled on This Old Farm.
"Paul Bunyan is part of (the area's) history," said Jody Allen Crowe, Rhythm of the Rails founder. "And if it goes somewhere else it's like losing a part of this community."
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Here is a picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe:
I learned of this dreadful event the first week I was in Minneapolis. It makes me sad to think of Babe parked in front of a bowling alley. And now there won't be any more family pictures, with the kids posed between these two giant statues.
It's hard to see some old traditions go.
7:40:26 AM 
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