Big Cowboy Boots

San Antonio, Texas, United States

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A pair of giant cowboy boot sculptures stands at North Star Mall in San Antonio. Texas artist Bob Wade made them in 1979 as part of a Washington Project for the Arts initiative in Washington, D.C., covering a steel frame in urethane foam painted to resemble ostrich skin. They were trucked to San Antonio on three flatbed trailers and officially unveiled on January 16, 1980. Guinness World Records lists them as the largest cowboy boot sculpture, 35 ft 3 in tall, measured on 4 November 2014.

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Big Cowboy Boots

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Site-level location · 29.5241° N, 98.5086° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Two giant boots made for an exhibition in Washington, D.C. ended up at a San Antonio shopping mall after a bidding war.

Texas artist Bob "Daddy-O" Wade created them in 1979 as part of a Washington, D.C., initiative called the Washington Project for the Arts, in an exhibit titled "Study of Giant Cowboy Boots," San Antonio Magazine reports. Wade made them mostly from donated materials. They are urethane foam painted to look like ostrich skin, molded onto a steel frame designed to be taken apart and reassembled.

The company that owned North Star Mall bought them for $20,000 after a bidding war with other Texas sites. They were dismantled and trucked to San Antonio atop three flatbed 18-wheelers, assembled outside the mall facing Loop 410, near what is now Saks Fifth Avenue, and officially unveiled on January 16, 1980.

For years the boots were touted as 40 feet high. Guinness World Records lists them as the largest cowboy boot sculpture at 10.74 m (35 ft 3 in) in height. The magazine says they appeared in the 2016 edition of the Guinness World Records, which gave 35 ft 3 in high and 33 feet from heel to toe; Guinness's own page gives a measurement date of 4 November 2014 and 33 ft 4 in in length. The magazine adds that Guinness included them on a road-trip list of must-see attractions in October 2025, and Fox San Antonio reported that they were to be featured again in the Guinness World Records 2026 book.

Wade died in 2019. The magazine calls the boots a city landmark that has been featured on postcards and in other tourism materials for the city and state.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

An outdoor sculpture at North Star Mall, San Antonio, on the Loop 410 side near the Saks building, according to San Antonio Magazine (2026). The Houston Chronicle reported in October 2023 that seeing the boots is free and that mall parking is free. Hours are not documented in the sources reviewed; check locally before visiting.

ACCESS

North Star Mall, 7400 San Pedro Ave., San Antonio, TX 78216, on the Loop 410 side. Roadside America notes that visitors can walk up to the boots, though they are positioned mainly for viewing from the road.

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