Alligator Wrestler Statue
Orlando, Florida
According to local lore, a cowboy (or possibly a meat market manager) named Bunk Baxter (or possibly Bud Yates) would come to Orlando on Saturdays in the mid-1880s and wrestle an alligator in the middle of Orange Avenue, which at the time was a dirt street.
This fascinating factoid might have been forgotten had a photo not been taken of Bunk or Bud, sitting atop a gator in the middle of the street, surrounded by a crowd of men at a safe distance, one holding the rope that tied the gator's mouth shut.
Although perhaps difficult to believe, the odd photo eventually became the iconic image of Orlando's colorful early history, and in the early 2000s a life-size bronze statue of the man and gator -- minus the rope -- was sculpted by Scott Shaffer and placed in the city's Heritage Square.
Now everyone can get as close to the gator as they want.