Blast from the Past: Immortalized in ... stucco?

Most cities or towns choose to honor their history by erecting statues honoring people who were significant in their founding or development. Hercules did the same thing. Sort of.

Hercules decided to pay tribute to itself by building a statue of ... Hercules. The Greek god himself was built 13-feet high, made of chicken wire and stucco, on a hill overlooking the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. He stood tall, with his hands clasped around a giant wooden club which rested on his shoulder, the very essence of power and might. He was also not very modest, proudly showing off his physique dressed in nothing but a clingy lion skin.

Apparently his, um, bravado did not sit well with out-of-towners who rode through town on the train. Passengers were shocked and embarrassed, and made several complaints to the Powder Company of his, well, overexposure. He ultimately would not survive the 1920's.

There are, of course, differing accounts of his demise. Some say he simply deteriorated, being made of only stucco and chicken wire. I prefer the other version. It would only be fitting, in the ultimate sense of irony, that Hercules would literally meet his maker.

He was, you guessed it, dynamited.