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Incredible Picture Shows Texas State Fair’s Iconic 52-Foot Cowboy Going Up in Flames

Oct. 19, 2012 3:12pm Liz Klimas

State Fair of Texas Big Tex Destroyed in Flames Potentially From Electrical Issue

The statue known as Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas burned Friday. (Photo: @conscientiousblog/instagram via Twitter)

A 52-foot metal and fabric cowboy known as Big Tex has been greeting attendees of the State Fair of Texas for the last six decades. With only a few more days until the end of the 2012 fair, the iconic structure went up in flames Friday, and Texans are mourning the loss.

Some fabric that made up the towering structure’s hands and sleeves still could be seen as firefighters gathered around the scorched area in the late morning.

$State Fair of Texas Big Tex Destroyed in Flames Potentially From Electrical Issue$

This is what’s left of Big Tex. (Photo: @keatonfoxNBC5/Twitter)

State Fair spokeswoman Sue Gooding told ABC 13 that Big Tex was completely destroyed within 10 minutes:

“I was entering Big Tex Circle when I overheard somone say, ‘Hey, Big Tex is smoking!’ I immediately glanced up and there was white smoke just starting under his collar,” Gooding told Eyewitness News.Big Tex’s 75-gallon hat, 50-pound belt buckle and slow drawl have been welcoming visitors since 1952. This year’s fair, which closes Sunday, had been celebrating Big Tex’s 60th birthday.

[...]

Gooding said the icon, which has previously withstood hurricane force winds and the theft of his clothes, will be brought down for repairs.

“I can promise you Big Tex will be back up next year,” Gooding promised. “He will be bellowing out his ‘Howdy’ in 2013 when the gates open up.”

This how Big Tex looked before he was destroyed. (Photo: State Fair of Texas/Facebook)

Watch this footage of the fire from ABC 13:

Gooding said she doesn’t know the cause of the fire but did note electrical controls move Big Tex’s mouth and head. Gooding says no one was injured in the fire.

$State Fair of Texas Big Tex Destroyed in Flames Potentially From Electrical Issue$

(Photo: @mkelly007/Twitter)

Here are a couple more YouTube videos posted showing Big Tex engulfed in flames:

WFAA reported the fair’s Vice President of Marketing Mitchell Glieber saying that it was most likely an electrical short, which will be investigated. Here’s more from WFAA on Big Tex’s history:

Big Tex has served as the mascot of the fair for dozens of years and was originally created as a 49-foot tall Santa Claus in Kerens, Texas.

He was eventually brought to the Dallas area and sold to the State Fair of Texas for $750. The structure was then transformed to the looming giant that has greeted fairgoers since 1952. In 1953, he talked for the first time, welcoming visitors with a hearty “Howdy.”

In 2000, visitors in the “Million Dollar Midway” saw Big Tex move for the first time with his big wave.

Even with the promise that Big Tex will be back for the next fair season, Texans are lamenting his loss on Twitter. Some are even comparing it to a 9/11-like event for the state.

$State Fair of Texas Big Tex Destroyed in Flames Potentially From Electrical Issue$

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(H/T: Gawker)

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Comments (62)

McNamara
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 9:08pm
Poor Big Tex. He has been welcoming folks to the fair for 60 years…we will rebuild him, we have the technology. We’ll build him bigger, stronger, faster….I think I am showing my age here…

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- Paool
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 11:03am
  Had a friend who went and said they went and heard they found empty beer cans and snickers wrappers at the base of him.
  
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SusanButler
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 9:07pm
The State Fair & Big Tex are “a Texas Thang” to which most non-Texans cannot relate.
The Fair began in 1886. My dad attended the 1936 Texas Centennial Fair when he was 12 years old. It was one of the highlights of his life as a sharecropper’s son. Big Tex arrived at the Fair when I was only days old, sixty years ago. Every family visit to the Fair was a bridge between Daddy’s Fair and my children’s and now great-grandchildren’s Fair.

Texas will rebuild Big Tex bigger and better, because that’s what Texans do.

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OKC08GT500
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 8:04pm
Even Big Tex wants Mack Brown fired.

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ellietoo
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:34pm
Looks like he was a hot head.

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- db321
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:06pm
  It’s Bush’s fault.
  
  Report this comment
Gonzo
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:11pm
Not optimal.

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- Taquoshi
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 3:33pm
  Now, Gonzo, don’t make this little bump in the road into a circus!
  
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HI_Don
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:11pm
Bush’s fault.

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flatdaddio
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:55pm
could have been liz warrens pants on fire…did she say she was an Indian again?

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DOra Glasberg
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:41pm
Maybe it’s a self immolation when he found out the Big Boy sign was cheating on him?

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YAHUSHUAHRULES
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:38pm
Don’t laugh to soon. This country is close to burning..if Obama gets another term America as a country will be finished for a very, very long time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-dkKoJ3kT8

“OCT SURPRISES” consider this and the implications of it. Valerie Jarret is using her IRANIAN connections to make a so-called treaty where Iran would agree to stop its nuclear program for sanctions being lifted just before the election. Read all about it. Pray against it. This is a battle that will only be won by prayer. These people are so evil they will stop at nothing. A treaty with Islamists and infidels (us) is called HOODNA – (Islam is required by the Koran to make treaties in bad faith with infidels till the Islamists get the upper hand and then they break them), This is to give Obama support for re-election.
Pray everything in darkness is brought to the Light. Everything hidden is revealed. Everything sealed is unsealed.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obama-cuts-deal-with-iran-over-nukes/

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justasurvivor
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:33pm
I feel like an idiot – I’m actually sitting here crying! I can’t explain it, but as a Texan all my life, only one year younger than BT myself, it was very hard looking at the pics.

I steeled my emotions to tell my HS class, but they’re just kids and it didn’t mean as much to them. But when I told another teacher, he welled up with tears too! We both had those dread chill bumps you get when something awful happens.

At least we have the relief of knowing no one was hurt, and no one did this on purpose!

(Or that’s what we think for 2 weeks till the drone pics are released.)

OMG – BT wasn’t on the president’s kill list, was he????

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- Wool-Free Vision
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:42pm
  “BT wasn’t on the president’s kill list, was he????”
  
  Don’t bet on that. We know how he feels about The Lone Star State: threatened.
  
  Report this comment
- Baikonur
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:53pm
  Look, it will be rebuilt. Don’t be sad. I know people said mean thing (me included), but Texas is a great place. My parents live there, and they are very happy. It will be rebuilt!
  
  Report this comment
term limits for congress
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:11pm
I think an anti-Metrosexual video was to blame.

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:39pm
Hank Hill will be SO bummed out. This is almost like when “touch-down Jesus” got struck by lightning and burned down.

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DOra Glasberg
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:38pm
A metaphor for Rick Perry’s presidential aspirations.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:39pm
  DORA GASBAG, Awww, did it bring back fond memories of your last STD treatment?
  
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Oneirishman
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:33pm
First evidence since the movie Broke Back Mountain that cowboys are Flamers.

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- Fubared
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:49pm
  Nice- now you will incur the wrath of encinom, rookie, and the jerk. Funny stuff though.
  
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- Pucci
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:05pm
  irish “man”- didn’t know here was such a thing.
  
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TelepromoterNChief
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:33pm
Big Tex= flamer

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Oneirishman
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:31pm
Global Warming! We are all gonna Die!

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Baikonur
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:30pm
Redneck Burning Man–no art, no joy, nohappy people, just all a terrible mess.

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- EtchASketch
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:00pm
  ha ha
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:01pm
  Do they have a bacon flavored X tab yet?
  
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- Taquoshi
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 3:44pm
  Yeah, but you should see the look of jealousy on the faces of the Burning Man’s organizers! They are positively green with envy.
  
  As for Big Tex, something tells me he’d say a little thing like a fire won’t keep a good man down.
  
  Report this comment
Docrow
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:29pm
Gentlemen we can rebuild him
We have the technology
We have the capability to make the worlds first bionic state fair welcome dude
Big Tex will be that man
Better than he was before
Better, Stronger, Faster

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- Oneirishman
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:42pm
  And with an asbestos suit.
  
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DEFCON4
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:27pm
Turns out, “Big Tex” was quite the “Hot-Head”…….
*rimshot*

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nesmond
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:26pm
michelle obama: the Patrick Ewing of first ladies.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:23pm
Hank Hill and Luann are going to be pissed.

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- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:45pm
  I swear, I didn’t see your post until after I posted. I’m a KotH fan and I saw that episode not long ago.
  
  Report this comment
- EtchASketch
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:02pm
  man, you guys really are walking tea party stereotypes! LOL
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:10pm
  FYI, ETCHASKETCH is a paid troll…
  Don’t bother replying to it because that’s what it wants
  
  Report this comment
- KoolAidDrinker
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:57pm
  I love King of the Hill. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline.
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:37pm
  ANONYMOUS T. IRRELEVANT, I saw it a few years ago, but that is the first thing that popped into my mind as I saw the story headline.
  ETCHASKETCH, well thanks for taking notice.
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:15pm
  @EtchASketchy
  
  Creeped in at the end of the day did ya????
  
  What happened Sketchy… in Media Matters meetings all day?
  
  See you logged out by 5 pm again.
  
  Taking the weekend off or will you be back tomorrow? It’s Saturday you know?
  
  No pay on weekends. Bwhahahahahahahahah……..
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:16pm
  Hi Anonymous T. Irrelevant,
  
  Nice catch….. LMAO. : )
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 11:35am
  I know that was meant to be hurtful, but thank you Etch. We’re all very comfortable with who we are. We don’t need a false messiah like Obama to give out lives meaning. However, you and your kind…
  
  Report this comment
Wool-Free Vision
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:20pm
Damn, all this time I thought Burning Man was a Nevada thing.

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blanco5
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:20pm
He lit himself on fire to protest the influx of lefty kalifornians infecting TX!

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- SCREW-WINDOWS
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 5:39am
  TX was warned ahead of time and had ample time to come up with a inoculation but judging by the illegal alien problem they have problems identifying without using profiling.
  
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Sy Kosys
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:18pm
The Obama Administration has put out a statement condemning this act of exothermic notonpurposeness, placing blame squarely on a 1932 video by the Coalition of the Vertically-Challenged.

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- 19RANDY59
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:47pm
  Your post gave me a headache, lol.
  
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I SPY
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:16pm
I keep getting all these disgusting Obama ads on The Blaze. Looking at Michelle’s scary face is very disturbing.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:21pm
  Install and ad blocker for your browser. Took care of those floating pop ups for me quite some time ago.
  
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- Meyvn1
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 3:52pm
  Yes. Disturbing.
  
  Report this comment
- coolidge
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:09pm
  Very creepy. Makes me want to make sure the children in the room are well protected. “Do you know where your children are?”
  
  Report this comment

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