World's Largest Killer Bee - Hidalgo TX
Posted by: 
PeterNoG
N 26° 06.235 W 098° 15.292
14R E 574506 N 2887405
This Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculpture, the World's Largest Killer Bee, is on East Texano Drive at the entrance to Hidalgo City Hall in Hidalgo, Texas.
Waymark Code: WMKJXY
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/23/2014
Views: 6
The First Colony of Africanized honey bees or Killer Bees entered the United States in Hidalgo, Texas on Oct. 15, 1990. The first attacks in May of 1991 were in Brownsville about 50 miles east. The first fatality in 1993 was in Harlingen about 35 miles east.
This infamy might have hurt Hidalgo's tourism, but within months, Mayor John Franz conceived the idea for for the largest Killer Bee statue and at a cost of $20,000 the citizens of Hidalgo had commissioned, sculpted and now proudly display the 2000 pound, full-color statue of the feared "Killer Bee!". Hidalgo was proclaimed to be Killer Bee Capitol of the World.
The Killer Bee statue is 10 feet high and the body is about 20 feet long with another 4 feet of antennae.
Smithsonian Description:
A gigantic, anatomically correct, yellow and black Africanized honeybee with steel supported legs and translucent wings. The bee is mounted on a moveable flatbed platform, with a pillared portico.
TITLE: World's Largest Killer Bee
ARTIST(S): Vettrus, Jerome, sculptor; F.A.S.T. Corporation, fabricator.
DATE: Dec. 1, 1992
MEDIUM: Sculpture: fiberglass and steel; Platform: wood and steel.
CONTROL NUMBER: IAS TX000737
Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link]
PHYSICAL LOCATION:
On East Texano Drive
at the entrance to
Hidalgo City Hall
704 East Texano Drive
Hidalgo, Texas.
DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH:
The Location has changed (see Physical Location)
The Bee is no longer on a moveable flatbed platform but appears to just be standing with 6 legs on the grass. There is a very short metal pad about 2 inches thick under each of the front two feet.
A colored wooden sign between two brick columns reads:
World's /Largest /Killer Bee /First Colony Entered/ Hidalgo.....Oct. 15. 1990
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Visit Instructions:
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