What) Jumbo the Elephant was born in 1861 in the French Sudan, whence he was imported to France and kept in the old zoo Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In 1865, he was transferred to the London Zoo, where he became famous for giving rides to visitors, especially children. The London zookeepers gave Jumbo his name; it is likely a variation of one of two Swahili words: jambo, which means "hello" or jumbe, which means "chief".
Jumbo was sold in 1882 to P. T. Barnum, owner of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, known as "The Greatest Show on Earth," for $10,000 ($220,000 today). When Barnum made his offer to buy Jumbo, 100,000 school children wrote to Queen Victoria begging her not to sell the elephant. In New York, Barnum exhibited the elephant at Madison Square Garden, earning enough from the enormous crowds to recoup the money he spent to buy the animal. In 1885, Jumbo died at a railroad classification yard in St. Thomas, Ontario, where he was hit and fatally wounded by a locomotive.
A life-size
statue of the elephant was erected in 1985 in St. Thomas to
commemorate the centennial of the elephant's death. The statue
was designed and constructed by Winston Bronnum
in Sussex, New Brunswick. It is made of concrete with steel
reinforcing rods throughout. The body is hollow and the walls
are about seven inches thick. The legs are solid concrete and
steel. The statue with its six inch base weighs thirty-eight
tons. The base pedestal was constructed on the site and weighs
over one hundred tons. The project was funded totally with
contributions from citizens, corporations and organizations of
St. Thomas and Elgin County with the St. Thomas Kiwanis Club
raising over $50,000 towards the project. The City of St.
Thomas provided the site where Jumbo stands. The unveiling
took place during five days of celebrations, fittingly called
'Jumbo Days'. (1)
Where) On the West edge of town. Just East of Highway 4 and North of the train tracks.
Why) You
may have noticed that there were a lot of statues
on the Florida Buckys list. On this trip I decided to
cut way back so I only put statues on
the list if I thought they were beautiful or if there was a
touching animal story associated with it. Take a look at
my pictures and see if you can figure out which one this is. 
