Scorecard

Hey! Pretty big hockey stick, eh? Paul Bunyan musta been a player, eh?

No, this blade was never wielded by the legendary lumberman. The 203-foot-high construction was erected especially for Expo '86, the fair that closed recently in Vancouver. As an asset of the federally owned Canadian Pavilion, the stick becomes a ward of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Not surprisingly, the museum has no use for the mammoth blade or for the gargantuan puck that accompanies it. So the museum decided to hold a yard sale and the buyer had better have a really big yard. Prospective purchasers include several communities throughout Canada that would like to install the stick and puck as permanent landmarks. "They may not go to the highest bidder," says Dave Buckner, the museum's project officer. "It depends on how they intend to display the stick and how it will be maintained." Three British Columbian towns—Penticton, Duncan and Trail—are known to covet the oversized equipment. Duncan, a community of 4,228 on Vancouver Island, would like to use it to decorate the training camp of the Vancouver Canucks, while Penticton and Trail would like to have it to commemorate amateur world championships won by local teams long ago. The lucky bidder will have to pay dismantling and shipping charges—estimated at $25,000—in addition to the purchase price. The deadline for bidding is Nov. 10, and the museum will announce the big winner two weeks later.