Coeur d'Lene, Idaho: Cowboy Wayne (Gone)

I grew up in Coeur d'Alene and thought that you might enjoy the real story behind Cowboy Wayne. Cowboy Wayne was the statue for Bass Western World on Highway 95, but he didn't always have giant leather chaps. He wore a pair of blue jeans until 1995. That year, Lake City High School's senior class decided for their senior prank to "cut" cowboy wayne's jeans into "shorts. There was a huge outcry from the community -- people writing into the newspaper saying things like "who would hurt our cowboy?" It was quite funny, mostly because I personally knew some of those involved in the prank. Bass Western World found it too expensive to get new jeans for the cowboy so they covered his post-like legs with the leather chaps.

Another point of interest is that when the FBI and ATF came to town just before the Ruby Ridge Standoff, and thinking that they were in the wild wild west, they sent all their agents to Bass Western World to try to "blend in." Locals could point out the "Feds" a mile off.... all driving rented Ford Focuses and decked out in cowboy hats/boots, looking like they just stepped out of a rodeo.

A "not quite" Muffler Man in Coeur d'Lene, Idaho, photographed last April.