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Brick Chess Knight (Giant Horse Chess Piece)

Gainesville, Texas, United States
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Roadside giants
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A 30-foot-tall horse-head sculpture built entirely from roughly 8,000 antique bricks (salvaged from a Chicago fire) over a steel I-beam frame, deliberately shaped to resemble a chess knight piece, at the end of a ranch on the I-35 service road in Gainesville, Texas. Built in 1981 over about 20 twelve-hour workdays by bricklayer John Groves for ranch owner E.T. "Ernie" Chrustawka, whose quarter-horse company was named "Check Mate" -- hence the chess theme. A matching giant brick castle (representing chess rooks/pawns) stands across from it.
Private to your Passport.
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Brick Chess Knight (Giant Horse Chess Piece)
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 33.6357° N, 97.1428° W
FIELD GUIDE

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT
Free, visible from the I-35 service road.
ACCESS
I-35 service road, end of a ranch, Gainesville, TX.
COMMUNITY

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World's Largest Bowie Knife
Bowie, Texas
A Bowie knife sculpture welcomes visitors at the south entry to Bowie, Texas, according to the City of Bowie. Guinness World Records lists it as 20 feet 6 inches long; the Chamber of Commerce gives its blade as 14 feet 5 inches and its weight as 3,000 pounds. It was a Bowie Chamber of Commerce project; the Chamber's page describes fundraising through donations and sales of tiles and benches. Guinness World Records certified it as the largest Bowie knife on 8 April 2016. The Chamber says the idea came from the late local rancher and bronze sculptor Bob Hadley.
Roadside giants
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66 km away
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