The Woofus

Dallas, Texas

In 1936 an artist named Lawrence Tenney Stevens created a sculpture for the Texas Centennial Exposition. He said it depicted the progeny of an Australian sheep that took a vacation in Texas and had friendly relations with all of the state's top livestock. The result -- the Woofus -- had the head of a sheep, the body of a pig, the tail of a turkey, the wings of a duck, a horse's neck, and chrome longhorns. Also, it was both male and female.

Stevens' Woofus was removed in 1941 and never seen again. A popular theory is that the nine-foot-tall sculpture, made of cast concrete, was destroyed by Texas Christians, who saw the Woofus, with its indelicate backstory, as a pagan idol -- although no one really knows for sure what happened to it.

Over 60 years passed before another artist recreated the Woofus from its original model -- only to have it destroyed when his studio burned to the ground. Undaunted, a third Woofus was created and placed outside the Swine Building on the Texas State Fairgrounds. It has become a popular photo-op, and has thus far survived unmolested.