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Luke's Roadside Attractions

Huge Beings

How Big Are These Things?

It is very tough to get a true size on many of the huge beings we encounter along the roadside.  We can estimate, but our  guesses are usually an underestimate of the actual size of the being.

In an attempt to figure out how big the Muffler Man variations (including Indians and Halfwits) are, I undertook a scientific survey, using a device of known length (my own shoe) to try to estimate the size of the Muffler Men.  We know that some Muffler Men are as tall as 25 feet, some as short as 18 feet.  (Check out Roadside America's Muffler Man pages for more information on this American artform.)

Luke's shoe and the Lake of the Ozarks Indian shoe.

Luke's shoe and the Happy Half Wit at Lake of the Ozarks.  The Happy Half Wit appears smaller than the Indian facing him from across the street.

I have tried this survey in a variety of different settings, including Indianapolis and Lake of the Ozarks.  As a result of this scientific testing, we have reached a startling conclusion: these roadside figures are big.  Very, very big.  Bigger than we are.  Some have even called them "huge."  So we will continue to celebrate them.

Photographs © Luke W. Cole

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