One of my favorite pieces of public art in Orlando is the bronze sculpture, “Bunk Baxter, Alligator Wrestler”, which sits near the fountain of Heritage Square in the front courtyard of The History Center. If you’ve never seen the piece, it is a remarkably realistic life-sized sculpture of a man wrestling an alligator, with two additional alligator sculptures placed nearby.
The piece was based on the photograph below, which I borrowed from The History Center’s website header. It would be interesting to know what this man was doing with an alligator in the middle of town (making money, I assume). The cows in the background don’t seem too concerned.
As a reminder, the “Great Public Art Challenge” is tomorrow (Saturday, April 12) from 2-4 p.m. The Orange County Arts and Cultural Affairs office has posted a list of works that will be included in the scavenger hunt-style event.
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3 Comments for “Art in Downtown Orlando”
April 11th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“The Great Public Art Challenge” - Don’t miss it!
October 7th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
This is a Great, great uncle of mine, so I am told, My father David Crawford knows exactly what relation. I used to go to the Orlando Science Center on field trips and my dad would call and ask them to bring this picture out and show my class, at the time it was embarrassing but now it is a wonderful piece of Orlando history that I am proud to be a part of.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
as i am told bunk baxter is my great great granddaddy, we have heard many stories of him. his son arnold baxter was my grandmothers’ father and my great uncle edward baxter is still alive, living in geneva, fla, edward baxter is 91 years old as far as we know, i would like to know exactly what year this picture was taken, the baxters lived on baxters point near loughman lake lodge, were they were fishermen and had cows and also had orange groves, my grandmother who was susie ann baxter dreggors, who was bunk baxter granddaughter, later married marion james dreggors, they had four children, who are bj dreggors, late ann evans, dale sanchez, and donald dreggors, who all live in geneva, fla. several children and grandchildren still live in geneva,fla. edward baxter still has a place of family history on baxters point, many stories good and bad have i heard in my life.
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