Big Tex

Dallas, Texas, United States

Characters and mascots

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 55-foot cowboy figure, the State Fair of Texas greeter at Fair Park in Dallas, rebuilt after a 2012 fire. He began as a 49-foot Santa Claus built in Kerens in 1949 and was lifted into place for the fair in 2025 and 2026.

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Big Tex

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 32.7745° N, 96.7573° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Big Tex began as a Christmas promotion. In 1949 the Kerens Chamber of Commerce, in a small town east of Corsicana, built what it claimed was the world’s largest Santa Claus, a 49-foot figure of iron-pipe drill casing, papier-mâché, cloth and rope, to keep holiday shoppers spending at home rather than in Corsicana or Dallas, according to the State Fair of Texas. The novelty faded, and in late 1951 the fair bought the figure for $750.

Dallas artist Jack Bridges reworked it into a cowboy for the 1952 fair, where, the fair says, Big Tex stood 52 feet tall in size 70 boots and a 75-gallon hat. After that first season his nose was straightened, his wink corrected and a voice added. CBS Texas reported in 2022 that the Bridges family says Jack modelled the figure on himself.

In the mid-1950s Big Tex moved to the roundabout in front of the Tower Building, formerly the Federal Building, where the fair says he still stands. On 19 October 2012, on the last Friday of the fair, a fire from an electrical short destroyed him. His replacement, designed by SRO Associates with steel work by Texas Scenic Company, returned on 27 September 2013; the fair says high winds forced officials to drop the curtain a day early. SRO’s vice president of design told KERA the new figure is 55 feet tall rather than 52.

Big Tex was dressed afresh for the 2026 fair, in size 96 boots, a Cavender’s shirt, a Resistol hat and Levi’s jeans, the Dallas Express reported. “World’s tallest cowboy” is the fair’s own billing. Reports from 2025 and 2026 describe him being lifted into place by crane about a week before each fair opens, so a visit is a matter of timing.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Big Tex is lifted into place by crane about a week before the State Fair of Texas opens in 2025 and 2026, according to NBC 5 (2025) and the Dallas Express (2026), and stands in the fairgrounds’ Big Tex Circle for the fair, which has run about three and a half weeks.

ACCESS

In Fair Park, Dallas, on the roundabout in front of the Tower Building. Seen during the State Fair of Texas, for which NBC 5 reported daily admission tickets in 2025.

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