Salem, OR

From the street, the bearded brawny gold woodsman atop Oregon's capitol building looks like he's wearing a superhero cape. Although he arrived in the same year as Superman (1938), a closer view reveals that the cape is in fact a humble tarp slung over his shoulder, perhaps to help the gilded Bunyan drag out the tree he's just chopped down with his big gold ax (one of his feet rests on its stump).

The Oregon Pioneer, his official name, stands 22 feet tall, weighs nine tons, and is covered with 23 carat gold leaf. He was sculpted in New Jersey by Ulrich Ellerhusen.

One wonders if the lumberjack is sad, gazing out at all the trees on the Capitol Mall that he'll never be able to pulverize into sawdust.