Walleye Statue on Mille Lacs Lake Gets a Fresh Remodel

The walleye statue in Garrison has been recently remodeled. The statue was originally erected in 1980 on Mille Lacs Lake and had not been worked on since 2008.

The Big Lake’s big walleye is one of Minnesota’s most popular roadside attractions. The nearly 20-foot long and 14-foot high statue is a place where locals and tourists alike stop for a photo opportunity. Legend has it that Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe struggled over three days to catch the walleye. The crew who worked on the statue just up the road at Hickory Lake Auto took a little bit longer to complete the remodel.

“I think we had it about three weeks. Just this time, there was some deterioration of the structure itself,” explained Larry Karpen, owner of Hickory Lake Auto. “We had to rebuild and stuff, so it made it a little more work. And then plus, stripping the old paint off, pretty much we got rid of probably 90% of the old paint, started over from scratch.”

The walleye is the official state fish of Minnesota and Mille Lacs Lake is one of the most popular spots to go fishing for walleye, which is why this statue means so much to people who call Minnesota home.

“I think that overall, it’s pretty hard to go anywhere in Minnesota, you can’t stop somebody and they say, ‘Do you have a picture of the Mille Lacs walleye at home?’ said Karpen. “You know, for all the years it’s been there, it gets an awful lot of photographs and stuff. So we try and make it look as good as we can.”

And as for Hickory Lake Auto, being able to work on such an iconic statue is something that gives them a sense of fulfillment.

“It means a lot to us. You know, it’s kind of a, you know, it’s like restoring an old car, which we do a lot of, you know, you kind of got pride when you’re done with it,” said Karpen. “That’s why we tried to make it look little better than most of the fish around the state.”