If
you wander the slower-paced, lesser-traveled roads
of America it will only take a couple of hours to
stumble upon a piece of folk art. This is a prime
example of how these things get started – one person,
toiling on a personal project gets noticed by people
driving by and the next thing he knows, he's famous.
The artist in this case is Hugh Davis and his friend
Harold Thomas. Davis built the whale as an anniversary
gift for his wife. Made from wood, pipe, and concrete,
the happy whale appears to have beached itself on
the Davis' private pond. It didn't stay private for
long. People trying to escape Oklahoma's summer heat
stumbled upon this unique watering hole, drawn in
by the massive sculpture. At one time there were so
many people diving off the whale's tale that Davis
set up a snack bar, brought in sand for a beach and
started charging admission. Davis died in 1990, shortly
after he closed the pond to the public because it
became too much to handle. Still, the Blue Whale has
become a local landmark and a national treasure.
