Awhile ago, Lydia at Arty Velarde
http://www.artyvelarde.blogspot.com/ posted a photo of a large muffler man. I wrote a comment that I love the huge, old fiberglass and concrete animals, people, and structures that were created around the country. Lydia asked if I would post my photos. I grew up in South Dakota and if you've ever driven across our state, you know that it's very flat - and there are lots of kitschy items along the way. Here are just a few from photos I've taken on road trips back home:
At the edge of the Badlands on the western side of South Dakota you'll find
Prairie Dog Village - which is a vast network of prairie dog tunnels, mounds, and actual prairie dogs - lots of 'em. The photo on the left is of the giant prairie dog that sits at the village entrance (made of concrete I believe). The Ranch Store is on the edge of Prairie Dog Village. And I've included a photo of an actual prairie dog.
In the town of Mitchell, South Dakota there is a
Corn Palace. The exterior is decorated with pictures, mosaics, and murals made entirely of corn! Near the Corn Palace is the Corn Palace Motel where we stayed one night. Below the motel sign is a huge steer and across the street is this huge buffalo. I don't know the man standing beside the buffalo, but thought it would make a fun photo.
Next we travel to Huron, South Dakota where there is a giant pheasant atop the
Dakota Inn. The ring-necked pheasant is the official state bird of South Dakota and people fly in from all over during hunting season.
If you've ever driven in South Dakota, you've heard of
Wall Drug. There are signs everywhere for this giant gift shop-o-kitsch. Wall Drug takes up most of the downtown strip of the town of Wall and sells everything you can imagine. It's full of trinkets, jewelry, hats, t-shirts, cups, boots, film, etc. There are also alot of unusual attractions, like robotic singing cowboys, dinosaurs, jackalopes, a gorilla, cuckoo clocks, bargirls, bucking horses. I'm sure I took more photos when we were there, but I can't seem to locate them. Here are just a few of the giant dinosaurs out front, the farmyard animals, and a jackalope (which is supposed to be a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope).
On the southern Oregon Coast we found
Prehistoric Gardens. There are alot of different dinosaurs, but I only have this one photo. I wish I had taken more.
My last photos are of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I took the photo on the left when we were traveling south on Highway 101 a few years ago. It's from the
Trees of Mystery near the California Redwood Forest. The photo on the right is Paul and Babe from Bemidji, Minnesota - I borrowed this pic from another website for comparison.
If you want to see more big sculptures, here are some fun websites I found:
World's Largest Roadside Attractions website:
http://www.wlra.us/index.htm
Gallery of Huge Beings:
http://www.wlra.us/hugebeings.htm
enjoy! Emma Pod
Last weekend we took a loop through Central Oregon. We went camping at Diamond Lake, which is south/central, just north of Crater Lake. And then we drove north on Highway 97 to Sunriver. On the way we passed through the small town of Crescent, Oregon.
It's graced with a very nice bronze/metal elk on some rocks.
