The 2003 storm that wrecked Ivar’s Mukilteo waterfront restaurant made a star out of an 8-foot wooden carp that went missing for two weeks. So, in the newly rebuilt restaurant, the fish has a place of honor in the front lobby.
Ivar Haglund, the seafood chain’s founder, brought the carp, carved out of eucalyptus wood, back from a trip to Asia in the 1970s. It stood guard on the deck of the Mukilteo Landing restaurant until the storm sent it swimming in Puget Sound.
Two weeks later, after a media frenzy and Ivar’s self-proclaimed “Missing Carp Fishing Derby” to encourage the fish’s return, Randy and Karen Buchmann of Everett found it washed ashore while walking on the beach near Picnic Point Park, about four miles south of the restaurant.
For their discovery, the Buchmanns won a year’s worth of free fish and chips and clam chowder.
The carp, which lost some height after water rotted part of its base, sat atop the fish bar outside the Mukilteo Ivar’s for a while after its return. Then, at Kelly’s Furniture Refinishing in Lynnwood, refinisher Chris Shepherd stripped, sanded and reshaped the damaged fins and scales. Besides his shortened height, the other lasting scars from the carp’s swim are cracks along the fish’s body caused by the salt water.
Shepherd said he loved the job, which had added meaning because of his longtime fascination with the carp and its significance in Asian culture. He has a dozen or so carp tattoos to mark his years of staying clean and sober.
A sign next to the “Prodigal Carp” encourages visitors to touch the fish for many happy returns.
Near the sculpture, the restaurant is displaying cartoon panels by Michael Konkol and Tammy Brown of Brier that offer a possible explanation of where the carp was during those two weeks.
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