Albuquerque Statues
I will go almost anywhere if I'm promised a Muffler Man sighting, but in the absence of official Muffler Men, I'll settle for other big statues—whole, or in pieces. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, we met two big partial men—one missing arms, the other missing his entire lower half.
Referred to as the Bunyan Mutant or "Fidel," from far away you might mistake this guy for a real Muffler Man. This 2,000 pound fiberglass statue is perched on a customized steel beam 25 feet above the ground. His arms were damaged in a windstorm sometime after 2013, but he once held an axe just like a traditional Bunyan statue.
He originally stood outside of the Duke City Lumber Company store in the early 60's. The space is now home to a Vietnamese Cafe, and it's located on the corner of Louisiana Blvd and Central Avenue (old Route 66). He would be illegal to build today, but remains standing thanks to a grandfather clause in the Albuquerque sign ordinance.
The second statue is a blobby concrete cowboy, who isn't missing anything but was only constructed from the waist up. He sits outside of Aesop's Gables, a cabinet company located just off the Pan American Freeway in Albuquerque. Our GPS was very confused trying to get us to this guy, and we circled around a few times before we finally found him.
The best part about this statue is how he appears on Google Maps. Before most trips, I try to look up attractions on street view just to verify that the address I have is correct. I know that Google's algorithm can't distinguish from real people's faces and statues, but I still laughed when I zoomed in on this guy and I wonder if I should feel bad now for violating his privacy.
Bunyan Mutant at May Cafe
111 Louisiana Blvd SE A,
Albuquerque, NM 87108
Half cowboy at Aesop's Gables
4810 Pan American Fwy,
Albuquerque, NM 87109
