Elephant statue from former zoo exhibit restored at Charley's Ice Cream & Grill

This is a story about a statue and the sisters telling its story.

Wearing pink and weighing in at around 600 pounds, Charley the elephant stands tall at Charley's Ice Cream and Grill in Gowen. The freshly-restored, fiberglass statue is named after the small town restaurant bought in 2019 by three siblings: The Kraals. At the time, they were all teenagers.

"We try to make the ice cream better every year, try to make things better for customers every year. I think that's kind of the same thing with the elephant." said Taylor Kraal, the oldest. "Such a beautiful piece of Gowen history of Grand Rapids history, of West Michigan history."

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While weighty himself, Charley once had an even heavier friend: Zooella, an Indian elephant who lived at the John Ball Zoo in the 60s and 70s. The then-nameless statue marked her habitat.

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"Zooella was his main love, that was his baby," said Teresa Dewey, the daughter of Zooella's longtime trainer, the late Harry Maxim. "At the end of the day, he'd always say, 'Goodnight, baby. See you in the morning.'"

In 1978, Maxim fell ill. He stepped away from his work. Soon after, Zooella's health took a similar turn.

"She really missed him," Dewey said.

That same year, after losing around a thousand pounds, Zooella was put down. Maxim was by her side.

"Zooella was not who she was made out to be," Dewey said. "She was a lovely creature that really cared about my dad and he cared about her, too."

For several years, the elephant statue remained at the zoo as the community remembered the lumbering mammal.

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In 1983, though, it went up for auction at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. The Youngs, a couple from Gowen in the antique business, brought it home.

Solidly planted in their Lincoln Lake Avenue-facing front yard, the statue became a "symbol" of the 4,000-person town of Gowen, according to Abi Kraal, the youngest sister.

"Just something you'd drive by," Kraal said. "'Oh yeah, there's the elephant.'"

Taylor Kraal

When the sisters took over Charley's six summers ago, the statue seemed a perfect fit for the ice cream shop: A community staple for the community staple. As they learned the ropes of running a small business, they left a note for the Youngs, asking to buy the elephant located right down the road.

"I don't think we knew what we were getting into at all," said Trinity Kuipers (Kraal), the middle child. "That whole first year was figuring it out and doing everything we could to keep it running."

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Raised by a "big business guy" of a dad, the owning of a restaurant seemed like a natural continuation of the Kraals' childhood, an upbringing marked by "little companies" like a log-splitting business and an apple orchard.

"I wouldn't say it was a lifelong dream," Taylor Kraal said about Charley's. "But when the opportunity came up, we couldn't turn it down."

This spring, the sisters heard from the Youngs. They were willing to part with the statue. It needed some love in the form of some fiberglass work.

"A long time coming," Kuipers said.

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Restored in town, the elephant now stands next to (and seems to lick) a statue of an ice cream cone: A lemon vanilla twist, a classic at Charley's.

"To have something old made new again," Abi Kraal told FOX 17. "I think that's what's really awesome."

On Saturday afternoon, Charley's revealed the statue to their customers. A few special ones stopped by: Teresa Dewey and her sister and mother.

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"He was an amazing individual. I wish he were here today," Dewey said about her late father, sitting front of old, framed photos of him and Zooella.

Shared by Gowen and Grand Rapids, the tale of Charley the elephant continues on. Dewey thinks her dad "would get a kick" out of it.

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