Photo by Deb Gau An updated version of the white rabbit sculpture that stood alongside Highway 68 in Wabasso for years was placed on Friday morning. The city received the new statue from a Windom-based fabricator, who made an aluminum casting mold of the original.

WABASSO — A city landmark returned to Wabasso on Friday.

An updated version of the white rabbit statue that welcomed people into the city was placed alongside Minnesota Highway 68.

“It just got installed this morning,” said Wabasso city clerk/treasurer/administrator Larry Thompson. Thompson said he was waiting to see the community’s reaction to having the sculpture back.

Over the past year, the big rabbit had been missed.

“Off and on, we would get comments asking ‘When is the rabbit coming back?’ “ Thompson said Friday morning.

The statue of a rabbit — the mascot of Wabasso Public School — had stood on the north side of Highway 68 in Wabasso for years. Thompson said the original statue was made of fiberglass, and over time its condition had deteriorated. In August 2020, the Wabasso City Council received a proposal from Windom resident Curt Wieneke to replace the sculpture.

“He came to us,” Thompson said. Wieneke requested the rights to make an aluminum casting mold from the Wabasso statue, and he said the city would receive two replica rabbits in place of the original.

The council approved Wieneke’s request, but it was a long time before the rabbit would come back to its old spot by the highway.

“It was kind of a long odyssey,” Thompson said.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the process of making the duplicate rabbits, he said. This week, more than a year after the council first heard the proposal, the city was able to announce the return of the Wabasso rabbit.

The aluminum version of the statue, painted white with pink eyes, was installed in its original position facing Highway 68.

Thompson said Friday that he hadn’t heard many reactions to the rabbit statue’s return yet. However, the reactions to the city’s announcement on social media were all positive.