The slow tourism winter months allow area executives to take up research and plan ahead.

For Whitney Ortiz, the Director of the Atlanta, Illinois Tourism Bureau, her research this winter led her into the history of the community's well-known Paul Bunyon hot dog statue and its origins.

After 36 years in Cicero, the Bunyon statue came to Atlanta when its owner sold it and the property he was located at. Ortiz explains the new owner did not find the Bunyon statue appealing and that's when he trekked down Route 66 to his new home in Atlanta.

Before Bunyon arrived in Atlanta, tourism had started to drop off. Ortiz indicates his arrival in Atlanta led to a resurgence of interest in tourists as Bunyon joined a prestige group of must-see "giants" across the country for tourists. 

Paul Bunyon didn't always have the shrubbery behind him. When he arrived in the early 2000s, a City Council member decided he needed more landscaping around him and sought out trees to grow and those trees have grown up in the two-plus decades of his presence.