On my June Road Trip after I left Fort Dodge I headed up to Humboldt. No real reason… actually now I think about it. I was originally going to go to Denison on this road trip to check out some Donna Reed history. But US 30 was closed outside of Ogden so I audibled and went to Humboldt on 169 instead. I decided to go check out the Frank Gotch statue. Frank Gotch was a wrestler from Humboldt that defeated Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania IV. He also died of uremia poisoning at the age of 39. One of those two things are true. You can figure out which one*.
But apparently he was a big deal in wrestling when it was “real”. Becoming the world champion after defeating George Hackenschmidt in Chicago. In a match that lasted 2 hours in what had to be one of the most boring sporting events in history to witness.
But the statue is cool and here are the pictures from my stop in Humboldt:
This stone gazebo in Bicknell Park is pretty dang sweet!
Frank Gotch Statue
The sculpture was 8 foot tall. If he was 8 foot tall, he would have been pretty hard to beat.
But in reality he was 5 foot 11. So a tiny speck of a man.
But he held the World Championship from 1908-1913.
The sculpture is on the site of his outdoor training camp.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, despite never actually wrestling Andre the Giant.
After retiring from wrestling, he joined the circus where he would pay you $250 if you could last 15 minutes with him. In the wrestling ring.
He never had to pay out.
A store in Boone should do this for the Fair Parade and the Pufferbilly Days Parade.
I would be calling and reporting the Sackler family every single day.
Yeah, it is okay if you need a tissue.
I’m also going to have my maid erect a sculpture in my memory when I shuffle off this mortal coil.
But if the sculpture makes me look this angry, I’m haunting my maid.
After having lunch (which you can read about by clicking on this passage of words), I headed back south down 169 and stopped at Frank Gotch State Park and made one more stop in Fort Dodge before heading on to Webster City looking for ice cream. But those parts of this small adventure will be covered on another day.
*It is possible neither one is true and he actually died of syphilis and uremia was a cover story.