World's Largest Gorilla

Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States

Characters and mascots

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Current

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This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Hugh Mongous is a giant fiberglass gorilla at the entrance to Ocean Breeze Waterpark, 849 General Booth Boulevard, Virginia Beach. The original gorilla, which came to the park from Richmond, was destroyed by fire on 3 January 1989 (Roadside America). A replacement, begun by artist Kevin Gallup and finished by Ernie Coulson according to Roadside America, was unveiled on 17 May 1996, incorporating some foam from the original. Sources give his height as 45 feet (Roadside America, Islands.com 2025); the park's tourism listing gives 50 feet.

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PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

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This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

World's Largest Gorilla

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

Approximate location · 36.791° N, 76.003° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Hugh Mongous is a giant gorilla at the entrance to Ocean Breeze Waterpark, 849 General Booth Boulevard, Virginia Beach, and the one standing now is the second of that name.

The Virginian-Pilot reported in 1996 that the first was sculpted by Demetrios Mavroudis, a Greek-born sculptor and former University of Virginia fine arts teacher, for a Richmond bank promotion in 1978, and that it stood about 65 feet. Roadside America agrees on the sculptor but gives a different origin and size: a Richmond magazine commissioned it in early 1977, at 37 feet and 4,200 pounds, and raised it atop the magazine's downtown office building. The Pilot says the original later stood at the Virginia Beach park, then known as Jungle Falls, and was destroyed by fire in 1989.

The replacement began as a graduate course project. The Pilot reported in May 1996 that an Old Dominion University graduate art student was commissioned by a park co-owner to build a new Hugh from scratch, with the owner agreeing to pay $20,000 to the university's art department. He worked from a clay model captured on a university computer and built a frame of welded rebar with two steel I-beams, then added foam, some of it salvaged from the original. The student and the co-owner parted ways over progress early in 1996, and a freelance artist and a fiberglass firm took over the work. A crane set the figure on the same pedestal on 17 May 1996.

The student had designed a snarl; the finished face has a grin, and he told the Pilot, "They stuck a stupid grin on its face."

Height is unsettled: 55 feet in the 1996 Pilot, 50 feet on Visit Virginia Beach's listing, and 45 feet and 11,000 pounds in an August 2025 Islands article.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

An advertising figure at the entrance to a waterpark. Admission, hours and access terms are not documented in the sources reviewed; check locally before visiting.

ACCESS

Ocean Breeze Waterpark, General Booth Boulevard, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

COMMUNITY