FITZGERALD, Ga. — Why did the tourists cross the road? One south Georgia town hopes it will be to see a giant bushy chicken statue.
Fitzgerald Mayor Jim Puckett tells local news outlets that the town is building the world's largest chicken topiary, a 62-foot (19-meter) steel-framed chicken with plants growing on it.
Wild Burmese chickens have long roamed Fitzgerald. Puckett aims to leverage that reputation to draw tourists.
He says: "They want to see chickens, so we're going to show them a chicken."
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The city is spending $150,000 on the topiary, designed to top the 56-foot (17-meter) tall steel "Big Chicken" at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Marietta.
"We found out that was 56 feet, so we were going to do 58 feet. Topiary Joe, who's building this chicken said, ‘Mayor, if you go four more feet, you'll have the largest topiary in the world.' So we said let's do it," Puckett told WALB.
Puckett says the Fitzgerald topiary could even include an apartment for overnight rentals and an observation deck. It should be ready by year's end.
This report was written by the Associated Press.