A small town in Georgia hopes the construction of an enormous topiary chicken will help it gobble up tourism.
Work is underway in Fitzgerald, a town of about 8,700, to construct a monstrous 62-foot rooster that will cost $150,000, use at least 16 tons of steel, and feature an apartment inside its body cavity that can be rented out to visitors.
The project is Fitzgerald Mayor Jim Puckett’s idea. Puckett told the Wall Street Journal that he found unused special tax funds and decided on a bold move to lure tourists to the shrinking town.
“I was thinking about it,” he said, “and thought, ‘Why don’t we just build a big-ass chicken?’”
Although the initial plan was to build the verdant fowl 57-feet tall — in a nod to Marietta, Georgia, whose non-topiary chicken structure stands 56-feet tall — Puckett said he wanted to go bigger after learning that the world record for largest topiary structure belongs to a 59-foot Mickey Mouse in Dubai.
“When I heard that I said, ‘Screw it, let’s go to 62-feet,’” he explained.
Why a chicken? In the 1960s, Georgia stocked a forest near the town with wildfowl from South Asia as a way to promote game hunting. Although many of those birds died out, a few found their way to Fitzgerald and interbred with the local chickens. Their population is now in the hundreds, and they are a staple feature of the small town.
Residents in Fitzgerald, located about 155 miles south of Atlanta, have mixed reactions to the bushy bird.
Paul Dunn, 90, said he hopes the plan can bring vitality to the town, which has about 39% of its residents living in poverty.
“It’s something different,” Dunn mused. “Fitzgerald needs rejuvenating. It’s drying up on the stem.”
Dunn’s neighbor, 26-year-old Justin Phillips, said that the structure was “stupid” and a “waste of money.”
“Nobody’s coming to Fitzgerald to see a giant chicken,” Phillips said.
Puckett is taking any criticism in stride. He said that at least he is working toward the goal of revitalizing the small town.
“You may not like everything I do as mayor, but you damn sure aren’t going to be able to say I didn’t do anything,” Puckett said.
