Crooked Feather

Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States

Public art

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Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Crooked Feather is a carved cypress sculpture of a Native American man's head, about 30 feet tall, beside U.S. Highway 90 at the western entrance to Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Thomas King carved this replica in 1999, replacing Peter Wolf Toth's 1975 to 1976 original.

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Crooked Feather

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

Approximate location · 30.411° N, 88.824° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Crooked Feather welcomes drivers into Ocean Springs from the west: the face and neck of a Native American man, with a feather sticking out of his headband, carved from cypress and standing about 30 feet tall with its base. A historical marker beside it says the sculpture is a replica of an older work.

Hungarian sculptor Peter Wolf Toth completed the original in 1975 to 1976, according to the marker, as the 17th of the 74 sculptures in his "Trail of the Whispering Giants", a series made to honour Native Americans, with at least one in each state. The Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area calls it the only one in Mississippi and says it honours the Bylocchy, Pascoboula and Moctoby tribes. The marker says the original log came from the Cumbest Mill in Wade, Mississippi, and was painted red.

That sculpture did not last. The marker says rot and insect infestation had damaged it by the mid-1980s and that Hurricane Elena in 1985 hampered restoration. A Library of Congress blog post from 2014 gives termite damage as the reason the work was replaced in 1999. According to the marker, the replica that stands today was commissioned and carved by local artist Thomas King in 1999, with the support of the City of Ocean Springs.

The marker gives about 30 feet including the base; the Library of Congress post also says 30 feet, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area says more than 30 feet.

In October 2026 the Ocean Springs Weekly Record wrote that Crooked Feather "became one of the city's most recognizable roadside landmarks", in a piece on a new steel shearwater sculpture near the Biloxi Bay Bridge.

The sculpture stands beside the highway, so allow for traffic when stopping to look.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A roadside sculpture beside U.S. Highway 90 (Bienville Boulevard) at the western entrance to Ocean Springs, with a 2022 historical marker nearby. The Ocean Springs Weekly Record (October 2026) called it one of the city's most recognizable roadside landmarks.

ACCESS

Beside U.S. Highway 90 (Bienville Boulevard) at the west entrance to Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The statue faces the highway; take care when stopping near the roadside.

COMMUNITY