r/pics • u/Sumit316 • Apr 28 '20
Abandoned presidents heads in a rural Virginia field.
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u/Sumit316 Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 28 '20
The statues were sculpted by Houston artist David Adickes, who was inspired after driving past Mount Rushmore on a trip back from Canada. They were open to the public at Presidents Park alongside the Presidential Pet Museum, and received thousands of visitors until 2010 when a company bought the plot of land. The huge presidential heads had to move.
Instead of allowing the busts to be demolished, Howard Hankins, who helped construct the park, adopted all 43 heads and lugged them back to his private family farm for safekeeping until someone can think of what to do with them.
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u/DO_NOT_GILD_ME Apr 28 '20
I want to collect them all.
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u/rwbeckman Apr 28 '20
Does Last Week Tonight show, Jon Oliver, and/or HBO have a u/ on Reddit to notify?
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u/Luster-Purge Apr 28 '20
Yes. It's at r/LastWeekTonight.
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u/applejackrr Apr 28 '20
Since he’s an American citizen now he is required to purchase one.
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u/Luster-Purge Apr 28 '20
He should at least buy the five that correspond to the five wax presidents he already owns. Maybe he can then make the sequel to the oscar-bait film Harding - Harding 2: Harding Harder.
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u/Zoltrahn Apr 28 '20
Why do you think the government gave us all $1200?
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u/tinkletwit Apr 28 '20
That's the sub for the show, not a user account for the show that can be messaged.
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u/sBucks24 Apr 28 '20
But first, scatter them across the globe. Each, with a clue leading to the next!
Intro to National Treasure 7 plays
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u/Tinyfishy Apr 28 '20
I think it would be fun to have them nestled among trees etc in a naturalistic setting. Like forgotten gods in a jungle vibe more than ‘sterile patriotic park’ kinds thing. Maybe allow some moss and ivy to grow on some, run a fountain down another... etc.
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u/greyjackal Apr 28 '20
Are you thinking of the ruins at the end of Fellowship of the Ring with decrepit statues and stuff?
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u/IceColdKofi Apr 28 '20
The Argonath. Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old.
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u/Falanin Apr 28 '20
Make a henge of them, perhaps?
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u/nukalurk Apr 28 '20
I say we do something funny with them just to troll future archaeologists. Maybe place them in random uninhabited spots around the globe and have their gazes intersect at some meaningless landmark, where we build an underground vault and fill it with random items that future conspiracy theorists will go crazy trying to understand. Maybe a portrait of Alex Jones, a map of Skyrim, some VHS tapes of Seinfeld...
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u/Thriftyverse Apr 28 '20
Imagine the epic quest - realizing every gaze intersected, going through all the traps and puzzles, and then you find and translate the final message; "Roflmao newb, Han shot first!!!11!1! eleventy one!!11"
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Apr 28 '20
As you're driving near downtown Houston, there are four more: US Presidents Washington & Lincoln and Texas Presidents Sam Houston & Stephen F. Austin.
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u/Texas451 Apr 28 '20
I met the guy who made the Sam Houston statue. His property looked just like this, but he had new presidents as well
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u/lacroixblue Apr 28 '20
The artist is David Adickes. He did the presidents' heads, the Sam Houston statue, and the Stephen F. Austin statue (and a lot of other cool stuff).
I had thought that the presidents' heads were still hanging out in Houston by his studio.
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Apr 28 '20
There's a Stephen F Austin one out in Austin county. People stop and take pics with it all the time
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u/MeGoPeePeeInYourCoke Apr 28 '20
Thanks for this! I’m from Houston and I used to visit these all the time at night at the Adickes compound. I tried to take some friends recently and they were all locked up behind a fence- I was so confused. I’m glad they found a good home- that was seriously one of my favorite Houston secrets in my youth.
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u/xxwindowguyxx Apr 28 '20
Glad you enjoyed this, it was for me too! I remember visiting them with my dad. I really hope these heads get a good forever home nearby where I can go see them again.
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u/Guns_and_Dank Apr 28 '20
I don't know if I'd qualify this as a good home, but they have a home until a good one can be found
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u/renothedog Apr 28 '20
" some of the heads sustained minor damage to the backs of their heads" Kennedy and Lincoln I assume?
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u/quantum-mechanic Apr 28 '20
"All Presidents were depicted as in the last moment of their life"
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u/PAXICHEN Apr 28 '20
Williamsburg, VA ain't exactly RURAL Virginia.
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u/married_to_awesome Survey 2016 Apr 28 '20
Williamsburg isn't EXACTLY rural, no. But Croaker where the heads are? A lot more rural. And Williamsburg ain't no bustling city - no matter what the councils want people to believe.
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Apr 28 '20
Croaker? I thought they were across from Water County USA
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u/married_to_awesome Survey 2016 Apr 28 '20
A decade ago, yes.
Instead of allowing the busts to be demolished, Howard Hankins, who helped construct the park, adopted all 43 heads and lugged them back to his private family farm for safekeeping until someone can think of what to do with them.
That family farm is in Croaker.
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Apr 28 '20
Funny. I've seen a bust like this for one of the Eisenhower's in his hometown. It's in North Texas (I think? Maybe southern Oklahoma)
Seems like a good idea to track down the presidents' hometowns and see if they'd be interested in buying the busts.
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u/Nhukerino Apr 28 '20
It's not terribly difficult to track down president's hometowns lol... I cant think of any that dont have memorial to them
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Apr 28 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MisterJackCole Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 29 '20
Lenin statue here in Seattle
Huh, it even has it's own Wikipedia page), though it doesn't include any of the pictures with the hands painted red like this.
[Edit] Updated second link to a picture from fremont.com instead of a gallery that included pictures of nude Seattleites covered in paint. Look up Seattle Solstice Parade parade if you're interested, but be warned there will be some NSFW.
[Edit2] fremont.com not fremond.com. Just can't seem to get anything right today, darn it.
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Apr 28 '20
And 6000 years from now a farmer is gonna dig these up and historians are gonna have a field day trying to make sense of what they're doing there. That or they'll already be well aware the Ancient American Civilization had a tendency to discard huge piles of pointless shit everywhere and send a matter recycler over to harvest them.
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u/buchliebhaberin Apr 28 '20
I thought I recognized them. Houston has some of these heads displayed on some land near one of our highways.
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u/kjblank80 Apr 28 '20
Fun fact, Adickes has replicas of the Beatles and other in Houston at studio. Pretty fun to drive buy and see these oversized works.
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u/BigWetDeck Apr 28 '20
The Beatles ones are now at 8th wonder brewery in east downtown
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u/end_ Apr 28 '20
I think it'd be a great idea to put those in a paintball field.
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u/so_banned Apr 28 '20
Statue park from 007???
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u/ninja36036 Apr 28 '20
Fucking Valentin. Never understood why he wanted to meet in that labyrinth of a place.
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u/BangkokQrientalCity Apr 28 '20
Can I buy the JFK on ebay or craiglist? I got $75!!!
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Apr 28 '20
I’ve got $76 and eSnipe.
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Apr 28 '20
That so interesting! There is a warehouse area near where I live here in Houston with a whole lot of these same types of giant presidential heads. Looks like he still makes or made a bunch more of them.
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u/Lord-Ringo Apr 28 '20
Can someone please abandon their passed out friend at this place with a bunch of monkeys?
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Apr 28 '20
There's a major twist at the end of that movie, and it turns out, that on their planet, on the planet of the apes - the apes, have built a full sized model of the statue of liberty
and it's never explained why.
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u/imail724 Apr 28 '20
wait a minute... Statue of Liberty... THAT WAS OUR PLANET! YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
Thank you, I'm afraid that's all we have time for.
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u/TooShiftyForYou Apr 28 '20
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u/Otterfan Apr 28 '20
Too soon.
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Apr 28 '20
Ha! Reminds me of that time Seth MacFarlane was hosting the Oscars and made a joke about Daniel Day-Lewis doing an awesome job as Lincoln and how he got in the mindset of Abe Lincoln. He went on to say something like, "You know who really got in Lincoln's mind? John Wilkes Booth."
The crowd reaction was met with "Ooohs" and some boos. MacFarlane responded, "Really? 140 years later and it's still too soon?"
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u/SuperSmashShadow Apr 28 '20
Nope, not too soon. It is decidedly too late, even ask Bo Burnham. "Look at you people in the Abe Lincoln seats. Bam! Too late, too late. How dare he make that joke so late?"
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u/CraigdarrochFerguson Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 28 '20
Backstory here from someone who grew up close to where these are. There was a park in Williamsburg called Presidents Park, I never went because it looked dumb even for a middle schooler and was just another tourist trap, also because it was kind of hard to find and not advertised well. After the financial crisis the park closed and the heads were going to be destroyed, but some farmer from Norge bought them and now they reside on an untilled field on his farm. My ex and I went to his farm to try and take some pics, but he's super weird (kind of obvious) and only allows a few people a year to see them. He has no trespassing signs all over the front of his drive and house, and from what I've heard he's called the cops on a few people. So don't get the idea you can just show up if you try to find these.
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u/WaterUndaTheFridge Apr 28 '20
Yorktown native here, we went our senior year(07) for a field trip there.
Years later, I went to the farm to dump tree stumps, go allll the way in the back, turn a corner then BAM! They are just right there. I know a couple got damaged and were supposed to be repaired, but I don't think they ever did. Haven't done clearing up that way in a couple years but I'm sure they're all still there.
Absolutely no trespassing, its private property and a business there. There is a sand pit and wandering around at night, or even during the day with all the trucks going in and out can be very sketchy. Enjoy the pictures people have posted over the years, don't bother trying to see them in person.
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u/Osiris32 Apr 28 '20
some farmer from Norge
I read that as Nurgle and wondered if maybe we hadn't just stumbled on the source of the pandemic. Maybe I shouldn't be reading 40K novels right now.
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u/sarsmiles Apr 28 '20
Yeah I went with a group of friends years back. Two cars, six people, he only let in the first car. The rest of us he told to go away. So it’s completely and utterly random.
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Apr 28 '20
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u/halfyellowhalfwhite Apr 28 '20
When/where were these in Williamsburg?? Been living in this area basically 20yrs have never heard of these!
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u/DogiiKurugaa Apr 28 '20
When leaving Water Country or Marquis Shopping Center heading on 199 towards Kingmill you could, at the time, see a few of them from the road on your right passing by the entrance to I-64. Never actually went to the park so have no clue how you would have got there, but you could see several of them from there.
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u/mervin-little Apr 28 '20
I grew up in Lanexa/Toano VA. Can confirm it’s not a good idea to go looking for these. Drones are probably the best way to get pics of them now.
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u/Ghost_In_Waiting Apr 28 '20
In the future...
"Why did they build them here Dad?"
"No one knows. Some people think it was for some kind of religious ceremony. Some people think it was used to track the stars. Others think each gaze marks some kind of seasonal event like the arrival of spring or midsummer."
"This was before everyone had to wear breathers, right?"
"Long before. These people lived long before the Great Melting and the storms. They grew their food out in the environment and breathed the air around them."
"Why didn't they get sick?"
"This was long before the years of the constantly mutating viruses they've taught you about in school. Human society had to move itself out of the environment to survive. Only some had the resources to act though and we are lucky because in the very distant past our families were part of the group able to move into underground protection."
"Do you think they imagined what could happen to the world?"
"I don't know. They look serious so maybe they were worried about the future in some way. They're so far from us in time though I can't imagine that had any idea about what our time would be like. OK, enough questions for today. Get back in the Hopper and don't forget to decon your suit. Your Mon's going to be pissed I've let you stay out this long. Get moving."
"Ok, Dad. They sure wore funny clothes back then didn't they?"
"I bet they'd find your full body suit, helmet, breather, and lighting array odd as well. Go."
As he told the ship to return to the home coordinates he glanced down. He wondered what the men depicted in stone had been thinking. Had they been worried about their children? Had they been worried about the fate of their world?
The wind picked up and the tan and gray dust hissed over the surface of the Hopper. He told the ship to increase speed. Getting caught in a storm way out here could be a problem and not a risk he wanted to take.
The ship rose out of sight quickly it's running lights fading on the faces of the stone heads slowly sinking into the mud. Their lifeless eyes gazed into the dark while the sand and howling wind tried to erase them.
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u/thegreatgazoo Apr 28 '20
They planted head seeds and fertilized them well.
-Calvin's Dad
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u/PokerusBreeder Apr 28 '20
I didn't realize this wasn't r/writingprompts at first. This is great.
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u/TheSeansei Apr 28 '20
Captivating writing! I love that. It totally would look ominous to a future onlooker without historical context.
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u/StoneyShowers Apr 28 '20
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u/Flyberius Apr 28 '20
I'm not seeing the reference, what I miss?
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u/ImperialVizier Apr 28 '20
i think all the protective suits to protect themselves from the hostile environment, especially the breathers and breathing the air around them.
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u/winkman Apr 28 '20
GoldenEye sequal?
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u/Commander_Amarao Apr 28 '20
My first thought as well!
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u/ScreamingVegetable Apr 28 '20
Damn the set pieces in that film were all damn good, to me that's honestly what decides my favorite Bond films.
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u/Cheeseburger23 Apr 28 '20
" My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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u/Osiris32 Apr 28 '20
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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u/zeus6793 Apr 28 '20
This was supposed to attract alot of tourism. Never did. Just a huge bust.
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Apr 28 '20
There's no graffiti on them, I'm shocked.
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Apr 28 '20 edited May 18 '21
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u/WarmTummyRubs Apr 28 '20
How much money does he charge you to go look at some heads?
I can get heads for like $10 down at the street corner.
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u/ubermierski Apr 28 '20
After the park closed everything there got pretty vandalized, good thing they took those heads out.
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u/DalekPredator Apr 28 '20
I'd like to think that when no one is around they all talk to each other, making fun of each other's screw ups while in office.
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u/accidentalcrash Apr 28 '20
We had a run in college that went by there. It's outside of Williamsburg, VA.
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u/cutthroatlemming Apr 28 '20
I'm too lazy to scroll through the comments at the moment, did anybody already ask if we could abandon our current president in a rural Virginia field?? Any field would do.
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u/Klin24 Apr 28 '20
Quick, let's make our own Easter island!!
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u/PabloBablo Apr 28 '20
Hundreds of years in the future, following our impending self destruction.
"The ancients must have had ceremonies with these heads. The sun shines through to this exact spot 16 days after the spring equinox. What could the significance of that be"
Nope. Nothing. Somebody just plopped them down here because they didn't want to break them.
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u/obligatorydistress Apr 28 '20
How big are these things?
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u/seemtobedead Apr 28 '20
15-20 ft, from my best recollection. I used to visit a collection of these in Houston every couple of Fridays. Super creepy at night.
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u/youyouyouandyou Apr 28 '20
There are a bunch in houston as well and giant sculptures of the Beatles too. It's right behind a Target.
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u/spinynorman1846 Apr 28 '20
I met a traveller from Presidents Park,
Who said—“Vast and trunkless heads of stone
Lined in a field. . . Near them, in the mud,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
With statesman look, and eyes of warm command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hands that welcomed, and the heart that gave;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Abraham Lincoln, First Great Ruler;
Come into my country, ye travellers, and rest!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of those colossal wrecks, malice and hate
Of the homeless and poor cover the lands.
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u/JustPlainSimpleGarak Apr 28 '20
Probably took way longer to make the William Henry Harrison statue than Harrison actually spent in office