Outside the Many Glacier Hotel, in the rear, is a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. This little sketch is looking toward the left from the back deck of the hotel.
The clouds were perfectly arranged for adding some perspective to the view.
America may not have ancient buildings and castles, or cities that have been around a few thousand years in one form or another. But by cracky we have personality out the WA-zoo!
The most unique, and arguably most loved structures, come from the ideas of “the little man”…the working middle class American entrepreneur. These architectural inventions and contraptions win the hearts of many Americans. They give a sense of place and identity to their locale that sticks with people in a connecting sort of way. It’s not unusual to meet someone on a vacation or business trip and learn with a smile that they too know about the “Big Chicken”. These structures also make tourism just plain fun for the young at heart.
The Big Chicken is one such contribution to the American Roadside Landscape. In 1963, S.R. “Tubby” Davis had the Big Chicken built to advertise his entrepreneurial endeavour, “Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake”. Rising 56 feet in the air, its movable beak, eyes and comb attracted a lot of attention. It soon became a major landmark.
Hard times caused Johnny Reb’s to go belly up and Kentucky Fried Chicken leased the space in 1974. In 1996, after much wear and storm damage, Pepsi chipped in and refurbished the old bird. Today the KFC does a brisk business and the Big Chicken rolls its eyes and moves its beak as commerce busily bustles below.
Granted, it’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright or an I.M. Pei. (It’s actually a Hubert Puckett, the 1957 Georgia Tech graduate who designed it). But try and tear it down and you’ll soon find out it has as least as many loyal devotees as the buildings designed by the afore mentioned icons of American architecture.
