This was a big section with nearly 100 pages. I decided to do one big post with all of the noteworthy updates. It’s a safe bet that many of these statues were moved to other businesses, owners’ back yards, etc. Most of them are fiberglass or small enough that moving them is easy enough. Some of them are plaster or concrete over wire mesh or were in fragile condition. Those I fear are gone forever.

This mass-produced, fiberglass gorilla statue at Roadside Daiquiris in Des Allemands, LA had been there since at least 2008. By last year, the statue and business were gone:

Snowball Bears (that’s I call them since they were always in pairs and posed as if they were engaged in a snowball fight) were built around 1930 and installed at Polar Bear Frozen Custard stand locations in Wichita, KS, Washington, DC, several in Tennessee, and elsewhere. Less than 10 of them survive — see my website for them, if you’re interested:

https://www.roadarch.com/critters/bearspolar.html

This pair in Memphis, TN disappeared recently:

This Chicken Car was located at Blackwell Motors in Farmington, MO along with lots of other statues. That location closed and the statues and this car were moved to their location in Bonne Terre, MO. That location closed last year and all of the statues are gone:

This Chicken Car in Kerrville, TX at a Church’s Chicken is gone now, too:

And, another one gone now in Doolittle, MO. I’d like to think some were off being driven around or repaired of the heads and tails moved to other cars:

This statue in Turlock, CA is gone now:

This Bull in Winston-Salem, NC was still there in 2019 but gone now:

This bull in Oologah, OK is gone now, too:

The Branding Iron Family Restaurant in Durant, OK has closed and this statue is also gone:

This pair of Bulls in Los Angeles, CA are gone now. The restaurant closed in 2020:

On to the Dogs pages. This statue in Bellevue, OH is gone now. It was installed in front of a residence:

The White Elephant Surplus Stores in Spokane, WA and Spokane Valley, WA closed in 2020. These guys are all gone now:

This Elephant was installed in front of Empire Slice House in Oklahoma City, OK around 2014. She was stolen for the third time in 2019 and I don’t think she has been recovered this time:

This Fish in Seattle, WA was installed above Sandy’s Seafood in 1951. The store closed in 2019 and the fish is gone now:

These Frog statues in Dallas, TX were built in 1983 by Bob “Daddy-O” Wade. The six statues were installed at the Tango Club (earning them the nickname of “Tango Frogs”. When then club closed in 1984, the statues were sold and split up. Three of them went to Houston, TX and then, in 2013, those statues moved to Nashville, TN. These three Dallas statues wound up at Taco Cabana (my photos below):

That restaurant closed in 2020 and the frogs were moved again to the nearby Truck Yard restaurant/bar. From their FB page:

If you’re curious about the Nashville Frogs, here they are from Google at a Chuy’s restaurant:

The Giant Crawfish in Lake Arthur, LA:

… apparently got battered in a hurricane. All that’s left is this claw. I sent a FB message and they are rebuilding. They hope to have it done this spring:

The Crawfish and Cowboy in Waller, TX are gone now:

This Beaver statue in Houston, TX is gone now. It was built and installed in 2017 for Beaver’s restaurant. The business closed in 2019. I assume that this statue was saved. It was created by David Adickes who is famous for his other giant statues (Presidents, the Beatles, Sam Houston, etc.):

This Hippo in Edmond, OK got a nice paint job around 2020. He was pretty faded for years before that. Someone loving must be taking care of him because the building behind him has peeling paint:

I’m ready to start on the next section which is also about 100 pages: People Statues. That will be the last blogs post(s) about statues. After that, the remaining sections for this project are: Art Deco Buildings, Movie Theatres, Eateries, Gas Stations, Signs, and Mid-Century Modern Buildings. Some of these sections are huge. So, this is probably going to take a couple more months.

Happy trails,
dj & the dogs