Big Ole's makeovers often give him a new beard color. Since 2016 it's been red.

Big Ole: America's Tallest Viking

Alexandria, Minnesota

In 1964 the New York World's Fair was in trouble: attendance and revenue were down. Word went out that when the Fair reopened in 1965, it wanted exhibits with more pizzazz. Alexandria, Minnesota, responded with the World's Largest Viking.

The big Viking in his youth at the 1965 New York World's Fair.

Big Ole (pronounced OH-lee, not Oh-LAY or Ollie) was sculpted by Minnesota artist Gordon Schumaker, who had previously made a big Smokey Bear in International Falls and a big Bluegill in Orr. Ole was the biggest of all: 28 feet tall, four tons of fiberglass and steel. He was the embodiment of Alexandria's most prized possession: a local Runestone whose inscription claimed that Norwegians had visited the area in 1362.

Big Ole's shield was sometimes used for civic announcements.

Big Ole was controversial. Minnesota's governor opposed the Viking statue. Historians argued that the Viking Age had ended in the 11th century, so there were no Vikings in 1362 (not even far-flung Vikings in Minnesota), and that there was a big difference between a 1362 Norwegian explorer and a Norseman Viking in a winged helmet. Most people didn't care. Big Ole, whose shield was inscribed, "Minnesota Birthplace of America?," was a hit. He returned in triumph to Alexandria on December 21, 1965, towering over most of its buildings when he was erected in the middle of a downtown intersection.

Despite local Norwegian pride and Viking fandom, Big Ole did not have it easy.

In 1967 the Viking was dressed as Santa for Christmas. Someone shot a flaming arrow into his red suit and set him on fire.

In 1980, after cars had repeatedly crashed into Big Ole, he was moved to a street median at the north end of town. This less-traveled spot encouraged a specific type of after-dark vandalism: male appendages that were occasionally added to the Viking, usually via spray paint or wood planks hung between his legs. These always required emergency surgery.

In 1996 Big Ole was knocked cockeyed by a freak windstorm, and while he was laying prone for repairs in a warehouse, its snow-covered roof collapsed and crushed his leg.

Big Noel Ole went up in flames in 1967.

Town growth meant that cars kept crashing into Big Ole, so in 2002 he was moved still further north, and essentially out of town, to a small park on the south shore of Lake Agnes -- a less stressful spot for his senior years.

In 2014 a storm blew off one his helmet wings. A year later a family of birds was found living in his shoulder.

Repeated repairs have left their marks on Big Ole. His shield inscription was changed from the generally speculative "Minnesota Birthplace of America?" to the specifically definitive "Alexandria Birthplace of America" (The shield was also occasionally co-opted as a civic billboard, advertising everything from local school bands to pig enthusiasts). Big Ole's cloak color was changed from yellow to scarlet; his beard from gray to brown to yellow to rusty red.

The Viking's longsword, snapped off more than once by hooligans, was restored in gradually shorter lengths. By 2016 it had shrunk to a dagger, although the restoration that year extended it back to nearly its original length. Minnesota weather has also beaten up on Big Ole, so he's had to be repainted every ten years.

Through it all, Alexandria has rallied to its Viking giant, always footing the bills for his patch-ups and makeovers, and celebrating his return every time. Unlike those runes-and-run Norwegians of yore, Big Ole is in Minnesota to stay.

Big Ole souvenirs in the Runestone Museum.