Garden Gnome

Elwood is a 15-foot concrete garden gnome who stands near the back of Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University in Ames, and the gardens bill him as the world's largest concrete gnome. The gardens say he weighs 3,500 pounds and was sculpted by Andy and Connie Kautza of National Rock and Sculpture, Inc., of Wausau, Wisconsin. The Dominion Post reported in 2024 that he began as an iron cage covered in a cubic yard of concrete. He was built for the gardens' 2010 theme, "A Celebration of Garden Ornamentation", unveiled on Earth Day, 22 April 2010, and officially dedicated on 15 September 2010. The gardens say they set out to build the world's largest gnome, but learned during construction that a taller one stands in Poland, so Elwood's claim is limited to concrete. His name honours Philip Homer Elwood, a landscape architecture professor at Iowa State College from 1923 until 1950, for whom the road the gardens were first addressed on, Elwood Drive, was named; Iowa State renamed it University Boulevard in 2007. In July 2026 the gardens added a smaller companion. The Ames Voice newsletter reported that a baby gnome was unveiled beside Elwood, and the Times-Republican described it as four feet tall and tied to the 2026 "Big and Small" theme. Andrew Gogerty, Reiman Gardens' marketing and communications director, told the Ames Voice: "We already have a big piece in Elwood, so it just made sense to add a small piece to go along with him." Elwood sits inside the paid gardens, which the gardens' 2026 list shows closed on some university event days, including home football games.