Texaco Big Friend at American Giants Museum

Atlanta, Illinois, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A restored Texaco Big Friend, a fiberglass station-attendant giant made by International Fiberglass, stands outdoors at the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois, on Route 66. Collector Joel Baker says it is one of six survivors of 300 made for Texaco.

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Texaco Big Friend at American Giants Museum

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Site-level location · 40.2610° N, 89.2308° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Texaco ordered 300 of these giants, then had them destroyed within a year, and the one standing in Atlanta, Illinois, is one of six said to have survived.

The Big Friend is an International Fiberglass figure, made in the same Muffler Man family of advertising statues that, Baker says, International Fiberglass began producing in 1963 and 1964 after buying another builder's molds. Collector Joel Baker says Texaco ordered 300 in 1966 and ordered them destroyed within a year. Shaw Local gives the early 1960s and a height of 25 feet; The Buzz Monthly says 24 feet and reports that Texaco first planned 3,000 giants. The Buzz reports that the figures were not properly secured to their bases and fell on vehicles in strong winds.

Baker says he recovered a Big Friend that was in pieces behind a museum in Pahrump, Nevada. Baker says the museum at Arch and Vine streets was made to resemble a Texaco service station because of that Big Friend. The Atlanta Betterment Fund built the museum in October 2022 and its grand opening was held over Memorial Day weekend in May 2024, when the restored Big Friend arrived on the Sunday afternoon after several postponements.

The Atlanta Betterment Fund sold the property in late 2025 to a collector from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the museum says it now works with Joel Baker as partners. The museum says Baker's giants and the American Giants name were on loan to the Atlanta Betterment Fund under a partnership with the museum.

The museum says its outdoor areas are open year-round, 24 hours a day. Shaw Local reported in July 2026 that the museum was open daily from 10am to 4pm.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

The Big Friend stands outdoors among a rotating group of fiberglass giants beside the museum, with picnic tables. The museum says its outdoor areas are open year-round, 24 hours a day. Shaw Local reported in July 2026 that the museum is open daily 10am to 4pm.

ACCESS

At the corner of Arch and Vine streets in Atlanta, Illinois, on the 1926 alignment of Route 66. The operator says outdoor areas are open all hours year-round; call 217-650-7117 about indoor hours.

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