WORTHINGTON -- The New Yorker magazine had a cover in April 2009, which has become a bit famous. Readers say they saved it.
The cover depicts -- as though it were a photograph from a single city -- a part of the Colosseum at Rome, Big Ben at London, the Eiffel Tower at Paris, the Opera House at Sydney, the Leaning Tower at Pisa, the Kremlin at Moscow, the Acropolis at Athens, the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Taj Mahal at Agra, the Great Wall in China.
Most of our world's cities have some landmark which can be printed on a postcard, stamped on a T-shirt, used as a background for grandpa's snapshot of unwilling grandchildren.
New York City's icon is the Empire State Building. Seattle has the Space Needle. San Antonio has the Alamo. St. Louis has the Gateway Arch.
Nature provided some backdrops. Buffalo has Niagara Falls. Many landmarks have a function: the Aerial Lift Bridge at Duluth, the Minnesota Capitol at St. Paul, the North Dakota Capitol at Bismarck. The Great Pyramid is a tomb. The Colosseum was Target Field in its time.
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Most landmarks were not created as postcard subjects, although the Arch was. The Space Needle was. Other landscapes around the globe include structures or statues created only to be icons. Well -- Paul Bunyan at Brainerd.
Worthington has ah - ah - ah.
(You knew I would get around to Worthington.)
Someone said, "Small communities don't have landmarks that could be screened to a T-shirt." Wrong.
The roller coaster at Arnolds Park is seen on T-shirts. I have used the coaster as a backdrop for snapshots of protesting kids. Windom has the heroic statue of Golden Gopher Larry Buhler on the courthouse lawn. Currie has the steam engine at End-O-Line Railroad Park/Museum.
Fulda has (still all-new) the walkway of pavers and the M-16 rifle sculpture at Veterans Memorial Park -- plus the depot. Hospers has the World War I doughboy on main street. Ocheyedan has The Mound. Avoca the Highway 59 monument. Sioux Falls has Sioux Falls.
Wilmont dedicated a point of focus, a site for visitors, a backdrop for photos just this month with the Memorial Bench on main street.
I am persuaded towns large and small do themselves a great favor for earning renown and dollars by capitalizing on landmarks, or by creating landmarks. The challenge to everyone is, "Think about this."
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Perkins pretty much has a corner on giant U.S. flags although a giant flag, plus perhaps a notable flag pole, could be a main street icon for any one of many area communities. It is not a staggering expense.
My first, longstanding concern at Worthington is its Middle School, which has no remarkable feature of any kind. I make a case that for student moral and student pride, WMS needs a notable boulder, an obelisk, a giant bugle sculpture, something -- some distinction -- that could be stamped on students' T-shirts, which could be a backdrop for student photos, which kids could point to and say, "Here's my school."
Prairie Elementary is, in itself, quite a notable building. Worthington High School is beyond help.
As for Worthington itself, I never believed a turkey statue is certain to attract more than a half-dozen tourists. Maybe eight. Anyway, Worthington has not had turkeys to show off to visitors for three-quarters of a century.
I never have believed Worthington has made enough of its association with Amelia Earhart. An Amelia statue in the downtown or at Regional Airport or along Lake Avenue would be a compelling camera subject. Or: there might be an aluminum reproduction of even some part of Amelia's airplane, the wings, nose and propellers perhaps. Something.
Not only Worthington. Most communities from our area need to lay out a few bucks to give themselves some distinction.
If some town along the way had a dramatic statue of Tiger Woods, travelers would turn off I-90 to see it, to photograph it, to get it on Facebook.
Why Tiger Woods? Why in southwest Minnesota? I can't think of a single reason. But if there were a dramatic statue of Tiger Woods on the main street of Alpha, I would go to see. I'll bet you would, too.
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Ray Crippen is a former editor of the Daily Globe. His column appears on Saturdays.
