Go to Cocaine Bear at Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington

Have you seen Kentucky’s Cocaine Bear?

The true story of a black bear that died after apparently overdosing on cocaine started trending with the 2023 horror-comedy “Cocaine Bear,” directed by Elizabeth Banks.

Whether you are a native or somebody passing via, you possibly can go to the true taxidermied bear in Lexington, on the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall.

Though not from the commonwealth, Cocaine Bear was an unlucky casualty of drug smuggling in Kentucky, in response to earlier reporting by The Courier Journal.

Andrew Thornton II was a Lexington narcotics officer who turned concerned with a drug smuggling ring in Kentucky. In 1985, Thornton’s parachute failed as he jumped from a airplane whereas transporting a cargo of cocaine — dropping round 75 kilos of cocaine valued at round $15 million.

A number of months later, the physique of a bear was found in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest, surrounded by about 40 open containers with traces of the illicit drug. A medical expert discovered proof of cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, coronary heart failure and a stroke, all issues that will be attributable to a big overdose.

The physique of the 175-pound black bear, technically from Georgia, made its rounds earlier than coming to Lexington. Previously below the custody of the National Park Service in Chattahoochee, the bear went lacking and turned up in Las Vegas. After “some investigating,” Kentucky for Kentucky tracked down the taxidermied bear, confirmed by the seen scarring on its stomach.

“And that’s when we knew we’d found the legendary coke bear. Those tell-tale scars on its stomach were from its postmortem examination at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation 30 years earlier,” Kentucky for Kentucky wrote on the shop’s website.

The bear was introduced “home” to Lexington, the place the story began, and arrived on the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in 2015.

The Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall is a memento store in Lexington. According to its web site, Kentucky for Kentucky launched a campaign to “rebrand” Kentucky in 2012, formally opening the mall in 2015.

The store sells a wide range of Cocaine Bear gear, together with t-shirts, postcards, stickers and magnets, in addition to different Kentucky-centric merchandise. In 2014, Kentucky for Kentucky launched a group of “Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Gold Necklaces,” made with actual bones from a KFC hen dinner.

Visitors can see the Cocaine Bear on the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, positioned at 1315 Winchester Road in Lexington. The mall is open from 10 a.m. to six p.m. Monday via Saturday and from midday to six p.m. on Sundays.

Maggie Menderski contributed to this report.