Rue Snyder, 77, helps guide the miniature Jay Bee Circus handcarved by Jimmy Bashline into the back of a Butler Eagle box truck for transport to the Eagle Printing Co. for temporary storage Tuesday. The circus model has been moved numerous times. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

Butler’s late, great artist and sign painter Jimmy Bashline appeared in an April 29, 1988, Butler Eagle article in which the reporter, Donna Ungor Sybert, detailed Bashline’s painstaking hobby of carving tiny animals, people, props and more during the creation of his crowning artistic achievement, the Jay Bee Circus.

On Tuesday, the Eagle and Bashline’s creation came full circle, as the men who treasure the Jay Bee Circus carefully placed it in a corner of the newspaper’s production center that is one floor below the office of the managing editor, Donna Ungor Sybert. The move took about 90 minutes.

Eagle Publisher Ron Vodenichar and General Manager Tammy Schuey agreed to store the bespoke Butler relic at the newspaper’s West Wayne Street headquarters until it is permanently displayed, hopefully at the Evans City Public Library.

The 10-foot-by-14-foot display of hundreds of handcarved figures as well as a big top, menagerie, sideshow, food tent, train yard and circus parade encircled by a Lionel train were created by Bashline, who died May 14, 2008.

A portion of this story is shared with you as a digital media exclusive. Subscribers can read the full story at the link below. To support our local, independent newsroom, please subscribe at butlereagle.com.