Last ride

With a machete in hand, and later a chainsaw, Waynesboro-born artist Mark Cline brought down his herd of fiberglass elephants Friday afternoon, three months after their appearance on April Fools’ Day.

Then, with an elephant standing in the bed of his yellow pickup truck and two on a trailer (one headless), Cline stopped to buy gas and whisked the elephants through downtown Waynesboro, bound for his Enchanted Castle Studios in Natural Bridge.

Cline assembled the elephant display with an OK from city leaders, then pushed for them to stay. Ultimately, safety and security concerns at the city’s capped landfill ended the faux pachyderms’ stay.

The artist’s parents also mounted the hill Friday, in equally good spirits as their son.

“They were all good,” mother Rosa Cline said of her son’s April Fools’ installations. “But this is the best.

“Nobody ever gave me a negative viewpoint,” she added.

As friends removed one elephant’s head, Cline faked a chop with his machete, then got to work with a chainsaw, breaking up the wooden bases that held the beasts. They’ll soon be in storage until Cline can find a buyer, he said.

Cline gained statewide attention 22 years ago when he proposed construction of a 60-foot-tall bust of the city’s namesake, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, on the hill. He has painted murals and created monster and dinosaur exhibits for decades. He frequently plays with historical events and laces jokes into his art, inspired by his father, Kirk, who offered one-liners, song and sleight of hand on Friday.

“Eventually all circuses leave town,” Cline said.