Pinkie the Pink Elephant

DeForest, Wisconsin, United States

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Animals and creatures

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Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Pinkie is a pink elephant statue about 20 feet tall, wearing black-rimmed glasses, at a gas station on County Highway V beside I-90/94 in DeForest, Wisconsin. A November 2024 Journal Sentinel / Green Bay Press-Gazette report said it was installed in the mid-to-late 1960s to draw customers.

Private to your Passport.

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.

Pinkie the Pink Elephant

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

Site-level location · 43.2501° N, 89.3808° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A pink elephant in black-rimmed glasses stands beside a gas station off the interstate at DeForest. A 2015 Travel Wisconsin article says what began as a way to get customers in had become a selfie spot.

A 2015 Travel Wisconsin article tells travellers on I-90/94 who need fuel to take the Highway V exit. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in November 2024 that the statue, roughly 20 feet tall, stands at a Shell station just west of I-94 on County V, and that the station's owner at the time had it installed in the mid-to-late 1960s to lure in customers. The paper calls it the world's largest pink elephant statue. The 2015 Travel Wisconsin article describes it as a giant fiberglass sculpture.

According to the Journal Sentinel, information posted beside the elephant says it has no official name, though people call it Pinkie, and that it was one of a number produced by a business in Sparta. According to the Journal Sentinel, similar elephants went to a supper club in Marquette, Iowa, one of the first, and to Arco gas stations, car washes, antique malls and car dealerships in a handful of states.

The paper reports that the sign also records that the elephant has had several owners and "has endured too much graffiti". A Vienna area visitor-site profile of a retired owner of the station says it has had a few fresh coats of paint, that a concrete slab was added after wind once blew it over, and that its glasses were once sunglasses that were destroyed. The Journal Sentinel describes the current pair as heavy and black.

The 2015 article suggests pairing a stop with pie at Norske Nook restaurant, five miles away.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Roadside photo stop at a gas station beside the interstate; a 2015 Travel Wisconsin article called the elephant a selfie spot and suggested pie at Norske Nook, five miles away. Hours and facilities are the business's own.

ACCESS

At a gas station on County Highway V beside I-90/94 in DeForest; Travel Wisconsin says to take the Highway V exit. It stands on the property of a gas station; opening hours are the business's own.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

Wisconsin is a gilded bronze statue by Daniel Chester French, 15 feet 5 inches tall and over three tons, on the dome of the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison since 1914. She holds a globe with an eagle and wears a badger-topped helmet.

Public art

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20 km away

TRANSPARENCY

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