A strange sight has made an appearance at Fair Parkin 2002 for the first time in decades. Known as the Woofus, the 9-foot-tall statue is composed of a sheep’s head, a longhorn steer’s horns, a horse’s neck, a hog’s body, a duck’s wings and a turkey’s tail.

The 2,700-pound bronze sculpture was originally created for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, but was mysteriously misplaced shortly thereafter. It’s possible that it was removed for repair and simply lost, or that it had fallen victim to conservative religious groups who saw it as a pagan idol. For now, it’s impossible to know; documentation concerning the Woofus is sketchy. In fact, no one is even sure where the name Woofus came from.

It had been forgotten for years until Craig Holcomb, executive director of Friends of Fair Park, discovered some old photographs of the oddball creature and, in 1997, started a campaign to recreate it.

Annual Woofus Dinners were held, during which patrons greeted each other with a “woof, woof” and sang the Woofus Song. The ridiculous nonsense raised $30,000 in two years.

The new Woofus was scheduled for installation in 1999, but the seemingly cursed creature hit a speed bump — its mold was destroyed in a fire, the cause of which was not determined.

More woofing and singing (and dining at $150 a plate) raised another $15,000 and the mysterious Woofus was finally installed last week, just in time for the 2002 State Fair of Texas.

The Woofus can be found outside the Swine Building, near the Pan Am Gate.