LARGEST - Bear in the World, Alder Creek, Clackamas County, Oregon
Posted by: 
greysman
N 45° 22.667 W 122° 06.113
10T E 570318 N 5025310
Not the Polar Bear, but the Ivy Bear is reputedly 'The Largest Bear in the World'.
Waymark Code: WMJGHH
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 11/16/2013
Views: 10
Situated alongside US Route 26, the Mount Hood Highway, in Clackamas County, Oregon, at the Ivy Bear Family Pizzeria. This is a wire frame topiary, a 34ft high structure depicting a bear, and named as
Ursus hedera. It is covered in growing ivy plants and when these are in full leaf it is quite a sight.
Quoting the Sandy, OR PRWEB site, November 01, 2012.
"The Ivy Bear was originally constructed as a restaurant in 1945 by Alder Creek resident Rose Moody. Moody rescued neglected animals and kept them at the site to be visited by children.
Unfortunately, the bear topiary succumbed to age in the late eighties and its namesake fell out of commission for several years despite the best efforts of a few determined supporters.
But the Bear is back! Both the restaurant and its sculpture are finding new life as their owners work to ready them for hungry guests. As the ivy begins to lace up the Bear’s legs, aromatic smells of baking are spreading across the highway beneath its gaze."
For the full article see: Ivy Bear
Going to Google Earth and entering the co-ordinates given gives a view from the air of the restaurant and to the east a large green 'bush'. This is the Ivy Bear.