In Enterprise, Alabama, USA, you can find one of the ugliest, yet most fascinating pieces of sculpture in the world. Certainly it is the largest statue of a boll weevil1 known to man.
Alabama is in the southeast United States and was once a one-crop state, entirely dependent upon cotton for their economy. One year a terrible infestation of boll weevils destroyed the majority of Alabama's cotton crop thus forcing the state to diversify its economy, and began to invest in other industries.
Enterprise and the Greek Goddess
The people of Enterprise, a small town in southeast Alabama, truly appreciated what the crop devastation had done. They were no longer dependent on one crop and they had the freedom to break their backs in factories rather than in a cotton field (this is of course a relative happiness).
In honour of the infestation, the town of Enterprise has constructed a statue of a Greek goddess holding up a large golden platter. On that platter sits an enormous boll weevil.
1 A boll weevil is an insect that feeds on flax and cotton.
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