We came across a few large (nearly life-sized since moose are large anyway) fiberglass moose in northern Minnesota. The first was in Moose Lake. A moose is an obvious mascot for Moose Lake. It's located on the main road through town next to the tourist information building.
June 25th, 2011 - Biwabik
A very similar moose resides in Biwabik. This one, however, is based on a children's book. Honk The Moose was written in 1935 and was based on a true story about 2 boys who discovered a moose in the town of Biwabik. The boys called him Honk because of the honking noise he would make. Most of the characters in the book were based on actual residents of Biwabik. The book won some awards including the 1936 Newbery Medal Runner-Up. Back around 2001, the mayor of Biwabik acquired the rights to the story and brought it back into print.
The fiberglass Honk The Moose stands in a park in downtown Biwabik. The park also has a nice building for holding wedding receptions that can make you feel a little uncomfortable when you drove into town for the sole purpose of taking pictures of/with Honk but instead you're almost crashing a wedding. Not that that's what happened or anything...
July 1, 2011 - Karlstad
Finally, a third moose stands in a park along Highway 59 in Karlstad. The city of Karlstad makes the claim of "Moose Capital of the North". Since moose are native to northern climates, this begs the question what is the Moose Capital of the South? Moose Lake? When your town is about a half hour drive from Canada, almost everything is "The South".
