Mainstreet Radio’s Chris Julin reports that the Two Harbors rooster is back, but it's in rough shape. In the week prior, somebody stole the larger-than-life statue of a rooster from its perch next to the highway. The bird is a landmark on the drive up the north shore of Lake Superior.
The thieves threw the rooster off a bridge and it looked like the statue would never be the same. But airline mechanics in Duluth have volunteered to put it back together again.
CHRIS JULIN: If you're driving Highway 61 up the North Shore of Lake Superior, you can't miss the chicken. When you come around the last bend on the way into Two Harbors, there it is, right next to the road in front of Weldon's Gift Shop.
WELDON JOHNSON: We're talking an 8-foot rooster, basically white, red comb, red tail, yellow beak, yellow feet. He's about a hundred pounds of fiberglass.
CHRIS JULIN: Weldon Johnson runs the gift shop with his family. He's lived in Two Harbors for all of his 71 years, and his rooster has watched over this stretch of highway for 40 of those years. One day back in the 1960s, a salesman pulled up to the gift shop towing a trailer full of fiberglass animals. There was a bear, a dinosaur, a horse, and a chicken.
WELDON JOHNSON: I almost bought the horse, and I thought, no, it's too real. I mean, people drive by, and they say, look at the horse. But the chicken, I thought, well, people wouldn't drive by and say, look at the chicken. They'd say, hey, look at the chicken. And it worked.
CHRIS JULIN: People from all over the country know the chicken. Weldon Johnson has had mail delivered to him with the simple address, Rooster Gift Shop, Two Harbors, Minnesota. When you put an 8-foot fiberglass chicken outside your gift shop, you'd almost expect it to be a target for vandals and pranksters. And sure enough, Weldon Johnson's rooster has been known to roam on occasion. It showed up on the lawn at the high school. It was held in captivity for a spell by some college kids in Duluth.
But last week marked a new low for the rooster. Somebody tore it free from its legs, drove it to Duluth, and threw it off a bridge into Amity Creek. It was wrecked. And Weldon Johnson started shopping for a replacement. It was going to cost $3,000 or $4,000. Then just the other day, some fellas from the Northwest Airlines maintenance base in Duluth showed up at the gift shop. These guys work with fiberglass all the time, and they offered to repair the rooster free of charge. They took the rooster back to the maintenance base, and they started patching it up. They told Weldon Johnson he'd have his bird back in a couple of weeks, in plenty of time for tourist season.
Up in Two Harbors, the police are still looking for the thieves. Chief Rick Hogenson says the case isn't their top priority, but they're taking it seriously. They're calling it a felony because of the thousands of dollars it would cost to replace the rooster.
WELDON JOHNSON: If someone had stolen it and thought, oh, no, now we're going to get caught, if they had simply set it aside in a ditch, driven someplace and called and said, we know where your chicken is, I'm not going to tell you who I am, but this is where it is, goodbye, and it was recovered with no damage, we probably wouldn't be pursuing it nearly as much as we are. But because they chose to throw it off of a bridge that's 20 to 30 feet above a creek, to me, that's intent to damage it, not just hide it.
CHRIS JULIN: Chief Hogenson says he has some good leads. Somebody saw a pickup truck with Wisconsin plates speeding down the highway with what looked like a fiberglass chicken in the back. The chief is hoping for an arrest in the next week or two. He says the workers at Northwest Airlines are keeping track of their volunteered time and materials. He'd like to see the thieves have to work off the cost of the repairs. In Two Harbors, this is Chris Julin, Minnesota Public Radio.
Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.