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A fibreglass whale statue made in the early 1960s for the Indianapolis Zoo, where it was a popular attraction from 1964, and moved between several Indiana sites before the city of Kokomo bought it in 2019. Restored that year, it stands in Foster Park beside Wildcat Creek, and visitors can enter its hollow mouth.
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Willie the Whale
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Site-level location · 40.4849° N, 86.1373° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Willie the Whale has been a Hoosier landmark since 1964, and in Kokomo's Foster Park visitors can step inside his hollow mouth. According to WRTV, he was one of the Indianapolis Zoo's most popular attractions from 1964 to 1987, and children had their pictures taken beside the 16-foot statue. WISH-TV described the fibreglass whale as made in the early 1960s by a former Ball State University professor, and gave his length as 26 feet. When the zoo moved from its old east-side site to White River State Park, Willie stayed behind.
His travels afterwards were, in WRTV's words, rather complicated. He spent time at Indianapolis's Boogie Mountain water park and at an amusement park in Angola, which WISH-TV said closed in 2008, leaving the whale in an empty field. He then passed to the city of Rushville, which lent him to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields for a miniature golf course. Kokomo wanted a distinctive feature for Foster Park and paid $10,000 for him, WRTV reported in May 2019. Indianapolis artist Justin Olson restored him; WISH-TV said the plan was to return him to his original cream colour and add decorative waves.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
An outdoor statue in Foster Park, a Kokomo city park beside Wildcat Creek. Visitors can enter the whale's hollow mouth to see photographs and details of his earlier homes, according to the Greater Kokomo Visitors Bureau in March 2026.
ACCESS
According to WRTV (2019), Foster Park is on the southwest side of downtown Kokomo, along Superior Street, beside Wildcat Creek. The whale is an outdoor statue in a city park; the Visitors Bureau places it on the Wildcat Creek Walk of Excellence.
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