By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

PICHER, Okla. — Bobo, a 3,800-pound concrete gorilla, is coming home.

For years, the mascot for the Picher-Cardin Gorillas stood outside of the high school, but with the demise of the school as part of the buyout of the town, many of the artifacts and much of the memorabilia from the district went up for auction earlier this month.

Dave Marlin, of Conway, Mo., said he bought the gorilla for $2,500, but said he realized soon afterward just what it meant to the community.

“I just thought it was an old, abandoned gorilla nobody wanted,” Marlin said. “Within a few seconds, that started to change.”

Jodi Morgan, 33, of Grove, Okla., is a 1994 Picher graduate who couldn’t be at the auction on June 14, but said everyone in the community assumed the gorilla would be purchased by someone who was local, and that the gorilla would remain in the area.

“When that didn’t happen, there was just an outpouring of sorrow and anger ... everyone was amazed,” she said.

Marlin said he started taking telephone calls almost immediately from residents and Picher alumni in two states who were hoping to bring it back.

“The thing I didn’t understand ... it’s a mascot ... I never went to school a day in my life. I’m self-educated. We didn’t realize what a mascot really was, what it meant to people,” Marlin said.

Morgan said she made contact with Marlin, too, and ended up working out a deal with him.

She wouldn’t disclose the price, but said: “I just want it noted that David was extremely compassionate, extremely easy to work with. He wasn’t out to get rich. Legally, it was his, but rightfully, it belonged to Picher, and he knew it.”

Marlin, however, wanted a gorilla statue to replace the one he was selling to Morgan, and as part of the deal, she and several other Picher residents called all over the country and eventually found several places that make them.

“Whoever he chooses to go with is fine with me,” Morgan said.

Initially, the gorilla statue will reside with a resident in Picher, but ultimately, Morgan would like to see it kept in Oklahoma, along with the other records, trophies and memorabilia from the school system that were not put up for auction, and will be given to a museum for posterity.