Enterprise, Alabama has a Boll Weevil Monument to show appreciation to the insect as a “herald of prosperity”.
It’s currently the only monument in the world built to honor an agricultural pest.
Boll weevils destroyed the entire cotton crop in southern Alabama, and local farmers were forced to try a variety of other crops that ended up paying better than cotton. In gratitude, they honored the little bug with a statue.
The monument was dedicated in 1919 at the intersection of College and Main Street, and reads, “In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity.”
The statue itself was originally a lady who looked a lot like the Statue of Liberty,,standing thirteen and a half feet tall with arms
upstretched.
Finally, in 1949, local artist Luther Baker decided it would be a good idea to have an actual boll weevil be part of the Boll Weevil Monument.
He took a bit of metal, made a giant boll weevil, and attached it to the lady’s hands. It is, we’re told, one of the strangest monuments you’ll ever run across, and we’re not kidding.
Other zoos have similar displays. The National History Museum in London even has a live web cam with infrared cameras. You can see the ants best if you tune in during English daylight hours.
