On September 15, 1885 an "unscheduled" freight train hit and killed Jumbo the elephant, star of P.T. Barnum's circus. Did the people of St. Thomas try and cover up this shameful event in their history? No, in fact they've exploited it.
Shortly after Jumbo's death citizens of St. Thomas gather around the pachyderm for a photo opportunity. Sick bastards.
My first stop was the tourist office to try and shake information out of them. They were conveniently closed at the time of my arrival which was well outside of their posted hours.
The townspeople are kind enough to offer 1 hour of free parking for tourists. Perhaps in some small way this assuages their guilt but it wasn't enough to buy me off (hey St. Thomas, you might want to throw in a complimentary beverage and a coupon to Boston Pizza).
I imagine most conversations at the tourist office go like this:
Tourist: "What is there to do in this town?"
Granddaughter of elephant killer: "Well, we have our life size statue of Jumbo."
Tourist: "That one that's right outside?"
GEK: "Yes. We also have the Elgin County Railway Museum, but it's closed."
Tourist: "I can still park here for another 59 minutes right."
The Jumbo statue is a sight to behold.
How does such a monumental task as erecting a giant elephant statue get completed? Well it takes teamwork. There were 29 members of Jumbo Centennial Committee and over a hundred donors. Seriously, after 100 hundred years the best 29 people could come up with was to erect a statue. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a better idea on how to honour Jumbo but I would have thought erecting a statue would have sprung to mind pretty quickly.
Despite the Railway Museum being closed I decided to head over anyway.
I think it's bad for business when a museum has a "Do not trespass - Danger" sign.
Another "honour" that the people of St. Thomas have given Jumbo is to name a beer after him. The good folks at Railway City Brewing Company have come out with "Dead Elephant Ale". Catchy name.
1 comment:
I took my son to St Thomas to see Thomas the Tank Engine. The day consisted of the freaking theme song blasted at full volume over and over and over..by 4 p.m. almost every parent I passed could be heard muttering under their breath. "if i hear that f@#kin theme song one more time..." It's an evil town.
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