The American Giants Museum in downtown Atlanta, Illinois, recently announced its regular hours, with a grand opening set for Memorial Day weekend in late May.
This month, the museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Starting April 2, the hours will be: from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. It will be closed on Mondays.
As for the Memorial Day weekend bash:
Activities include the arrival and erection of a 24-foot-tall Texaco Big Friend giant, one of only six remaining from the original 300 produced by International Fiberglass Company in the mid-1960s.
The Texaco Big Friend will be placed on a 12-by-12-foot concrete pad on the west side of the American Giants Museum, directly next to Atlanta’s original 1926 alignment of Route 66. When in place, the Texaco Big Friend will be 7 feet taller than the Museum building itself.
An original Viking Carpet Giant will also arrive in Atlanta in time to be installed at the American Giants Museum over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Viking Carpet Giant will stand on a 10-by-10-foot concrete pad on the east side of the American Giants Museum in the Route 66 Land of the Giants Rest Stop area, where its brother giant, the Snerd, is already located.
The museum tells the story of the Muffler Man, or Bunyan Giant, fiberglass statues that sprang up in the 1960s as advertising gimmicks across the USA.
The museum is a partnership between American Giants expert Joel Baker and the Atlanta Betterment Fund organization. Several years ago, Baker approached the Atlanta Betterment Fund with the idea of creating an American Giants Museum.
His collection of giants, sales materials, files, photos and other documents from International Fiberglass are the basis for the museum’s exhibits.
(Images courtesy of Bill Thomas)