Fiberglass giants getting their own museum on Route 66 in Atlanta

Jun 23, 2023

Joel Baker checks out work on display on Thursday at the American Giants Museum in Atlanta.

Joel Baker talks about American Giants Museum in Atlanta

ATLANTA — Visitors and Route 66 enthusiasts will notice a few more giants on their way through Atlanta with the addition of a new museum this summer.

"It's the first of its kind and it's exciting to see it all come together," said Bill Thomas, treasurer of the Atlanta Betterment Fund and director of the Logan County Economic Development Council.

The American Giants Museum will showcase and tell the history of the statues, called "Muffler Men," in a space resembling a vintage Texaco service station at 100 SW Arch St., along the 1926 alignment of Route 66.

An aerial view of the American Giants Museum in downtown Atlanta.

Thomas said it will be one of the largest Muffler Men collections in one place along the historic route.

Muffler Men are gigantic fiberglass characters made in the 1960s and '70s by International Fiberglass, which was in Venice, California, but went out of business in 1976. The figures were scattered across the length of Route 66 to help businesses garner attention and draw in customers.

The giants varied in style, with some dressed as cowboys, Vikings, Native Americans and, more notably, as Paul Bunyan.

"They're larger than life," said Joel Baker, founder and president of the American Giants Museum. "I didn't have this interest till about 2011, but when I started seeing the story and doing the research, there was just something so drawing about it."

The museum will include several different giants, including a 24-foot-tall Texaco "Big Friend" outside the museum. Over the next three years, as Route 66 approaches its 100th anniversary in 2026, the museum will add five more statues, each about 19 feet tall.

The first to go up Thursday was the "Half Wit" giant. It's the first one Baker bought, in 2012, from the Wagon Wheel bar in Madison, Ohio. He's since restored it, along with others, in his Carbondale shop. Baker, previously of West Frankfort, now lives in Denver, but stays tied to Illinois with his workshop and, soon, the Atlanta museum.

Inside the museum, visitors will find artifacts, photos, documents and giant fiberglass accessories, all telling the story of the giants. Several giant heads will be suspended from the ceiling and there will also be a 7-foot-long Esso Tiger; matching A&W Root Beer Mama Burger and Baby Burger statues; and a waving gas station attendant sign.

The space includes storage for rotating exhibits, along with an office for Atlanta Tourism Director Scott McCoy.

Bill Thomas, left, and Joel Baker work on installing the Esso Tiger for display on Thursday at the American Giants Museum in Atlanta.

"It's not even open yet and we already have businesses that are interested in coming to Atlanta and setting up shop here because they know how many travelers come through here," said McCoy, who was mayor of another Route 66 town, Pontiac, from 2005 to 2009.

Baker said he went from reading about the giants to meeting a few other enthusiasts, then created documentary videos on YouTube about traveling up Illinois' Route 66 in 2012.

During one of those trips, Baker found himself in Atlanta to see the town's Paul Bunyan giant, known for having a hot dog in his hands instead of the more commonly seen ax.

According to the City of Atlanta, the hot dog-holding giant had been made in the 1960s for a buyer in Sacramento, California, but when the sale fell through, another buyer, Hamlet Arthur Stephens, purchased the giant for approximately $1,900.

The Hot Dog Muffler Man is seen Thursday in downtown Atlanta.

Stephens had the giant delivered in three parts to Cicero, where it was assembled, and he had the hot dog specially made to promote his restaurant, named Bunyan's, according to the city.

The restaurant closed in 2002, and in 2003, the City of Atlanta acquired the giant on loan from Stephens' family and installed it at 103 SW Arch St.

Baker said during his visit in 2012, he had a camera on a tall pole to examine the giant from eye level when he caught the attention of Thomas, who was working in his office nearby.

"We're really a destination stop, so in my opinion it's been extremely important for the community," said Thomas, who also is a member of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway program, chair on the National Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, and was recently appointed to the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission.

Bill Thomas, left, and Joel Baker unload items on Thursday that will be on display at the American Giants Museum in Atlanta.

From that point on, Baker and Thomas developed a relationship that involved Baker being invited back to Atlanta a year later to host a talk and explain the history of the Muffler Men.

Somewhere along the line, the two started talking about using the Atlanta Betterment Fund, a nonprofit established in 2008 through private donations and administered by a board of directors, to help build a museum devoted to the giants.

"A lot of people have childhood images of them or their parents in front of these giants and they want to go back and they want to visit that," Baker said. "Here's a place where they can see so many at once, and also (learn) the history."

Joel Baker, left, and Bill Thomas talk about the American Giants Museum in downtown Atlanta.

The museum is slated to open in July, with an exact opening date and museum hours to be announced once they are decided.

McCoy said the project will bring about more revenue and add to the tourist attractions in Atlanta that draw in visitors from across the state, country and world. Ultimately, he said he hopes to see Atlanta be one of the top 10 spots on all of Route 66.

For more information about the museum, visit www.americangiantsmuseum.com.

To learn more about other tourist attractions and events in Atlanta, visit www.atlantaillinois.org.

Drone footage of the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta. The 55-foot-tall elevator was built in 1903 and opened 1904, storing up to 30,000 bushels of grain for decades before closing down in 1976.

The J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator is pictured in Atlanta. The 55-foot-tall elevator was built in 1903 and opened 1904, storing up to 30,000 bushels of grain for decades before closing down in 1976.

From the bottom looking up, the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta consists of wood framing and studs that carousel around the elevator and lead to the top floor.

Julianna Nordman, co-director of the Atlanta Public Library and Museum, walks around the top level of J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta.

Historian Larry Brandt opens the door to the driveway of the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta. Horse-drawn wagons would drive onto two dump logs that acted as a teeter-totter to tilt the rear of the wagon down, letting the grain slide into the receiving pit below.

A building used by the Cracker Jack Co. sits on the original founding of the scale house at J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta. It is filled with period items including a wood-burning stove, sieves used to grade the grain, and a scale made by the Chicago Scale Co.

Details shown on a grain scale from the Chicago Scale Co. inside the scale house at J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta.

The scale house looking up at the 30-foot-tall Woodmanse windmill at J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta. Until the late 1930s, most farms used the mills to pump water for livestock.

An old antique Prince Albert tobacco tin can leaning against the window of the scale house at J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta.

Contact Mateusz Janik at (309) 820-3234. Follow Mateusz on Twitter:@mjanik99

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