Tex Randall Needs A Home

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Wanted: a good home for Tex Randall. Must have the space and inclination to accommodate a 47-foot tall, 7-ton, Stetson-wearing, mustachioed, skinny cowboy made of plaster, concrete, rebar and wire. Full disclosure, Tex is going on 50 years old and has entered a period of grievous middle age decline. Danny Byrd, sounds like a fair description of Tex Randall?

Mr. DANNY BYRD (Owner, Feldman's Fieldhouse Diner): Yeah, I believe so.

NORRIS: And you are the owner of Tex Randall. This is a statue in Canyon, Texas, south of Amarillo 1 Highway 60. How did you come to own Tex?

Mr. BYRD: Well, the property that he stands on was for sale. And went by and asked the gentleman if he would have any interest in selling just Tex Randall. So we bought Tex Randall from him with the intentions of moving him over to a restaurant location. And things just didn't work out, we never quite got him moved.

NORRIS: And how much did you pay?

Mr. BYRD: We paid $5,000 for him.

NORRIS: Well, what's the problem with moving him to the restaurant?

Mr. BYRD: The price to move him was anywhere from about $75,000 is what we thought it was going to cost us.

NORRIS: That's a lot of money.

Mr. BYRD: Yeah. And then we were a little scared that we might tear him up in the process, and he's pretty popular around here.

NORRIS: But what happens, Mr. Byrd, if you can't figure out a way to raise the money to move Tex? What's going to happen to him?

Mr. BYRD: Well, I don't own the property that he stands on, and the property's going under contract. And the people who have purchased the land, they will tear him down. They've already said that they have no interest in him standing there, so I'm afraid that he'd get torn down.

NORRIS: Tex is in trouble.

Mr. BYRD: Tex is in trouble. We have a grassroots little movement going on here in the town where people are - we're trying to fundraise and hoping that we can get the city and the county involved. We spoke with the mayor and the county judge. Hopefully, we can get some money raised and get him moved to some public land where he can stand and be there for a long time.

NORRIS: Is there a deadline?

Mr. BYRD: We believe we've got about 90 to 120 days, is what it looks like.

NORRIS: You must've heard stories about Tex. I gather he used to wear actual clothes, and now it's paint. But he used to wear real clothes.

Mr. BYRD: When he was originally made, Levi Strauss and Justin Boot Company and some other clothing companies, I think Wrangler, was involved. And they actually put Levi's on him and a Wrangler shirt and put real Justin boots on him and he stood up there with clothes, but it didn't take very long for the clothes to become tattered.

NORRIS: Mr. Byrd, do you talk to people who were around when Tex was raised, maybe who helped raise him, and do they talk about what he means to the town?

Mr. BYRD: Yeah. I was really surprised at what he does mean to the community. You hear stories of people saying, well, I always knew I was home when I could see Big Tex, or going to grandma's house, we'd stop and, you know, see Big Tex and things like that. So there is a lot of support for him.

NORRIS: Well, Mr. Byrd, I hope things work out well for you and for Tex Randall.

Mr. BYRD: We're going to do what we can to save him and try to keep him here in Canyon.

NORRIS: Danny Byrd is the owner of Tex Randall, a 47-foot tall statue looking for a home in Canyon, Texas. By the way, the Justin boots Tex used to wear, he can't confirm it, but we hear they were size 75.

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