Baker, California: Statue to the Discoverer of the South Pole (Gone)

As of 7/18/14, the wooden South-Pole Explorer has wandered off, leaving its pedestal base high-and-dry! Probably felt irrelevant (now that the huge thermometer down the street is up and running again)!

Looks like restaurant is out of business. Better get there before it is gone.

An obscurely located statue honoring Roald Amundsen has been struck by vandals. Though the wooden statue is intact, the metal plaque identifying his accomplishment has been pried from the top of the stone monument. All that's left is a squiggly pattern of glue. The famous explorer who reached the South Pole was an ancestor of the adjacent gas station owner, who was inspired to add the monument positioned to gaze at his pump island.

Without the plaque, Amundsen resembles a random decoration from an out-of-business seafood restaurant even more than he did before.

Sandwiched between Bun Boy and Pike's Shell Station sits a particularly odd sight. Not often does one see a wooden statue of a man dressed like the Gordon's Fisherman. Here lies a statue of Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South Pole. Apparently, Roald's ancestor is the founder of Pike's Shell Station.

Plaque reads: "Discoverer of the South Pole, was the ancestor of Pike's Service Center founders Milton Pike (formally Marlowe Amundsen) and Thelma Hutton Pike, Parents of Gale H Pike)."