A small lot turned town park -- Heritage Plaza -- is where you find the head of native son Dan Blocker, Bonanza's Hoss Cartwright. Dedicated on July 4, 1973, it isn't the giant noggin of database legend, but a tasteful life-size bronze bust by artist Glenna Goodacre.
The plaque beneath the head reads "Thanks To Film Hoss Cartwright Will Live, But All Too Seldom Does The World Get To Keep A Dan Blocker."
The park is on the same block as a closed up business labeled "BLOCKER," apparently the old family grocery store. The plywood covering the entrance features a handpainted "Hoss" hat.
Across the street is the O'Donnell Museum, displaying some Hoss memorabilia and area history. Dan's other claim to fame is that he was the largest baby ever born in Bowie County (14 lbs.), in the town of DeKalb in 1928.
While cable reruns guarantee we won't forget Dan Blocker, this humble head also does its part. Coincidentally, sculptor Goodacre was memorialized in Lubbock on the same day in 1997 as Dan Blocker, when they were added to the West Texas Walk of Fame around the Buddy Holly statue.
Dan Blocker's grave is in a cemetery in DeKalb (Grave: I-30 DeKalb Exit, 12 mi. to cemetery on right, 2nd road to left, Blocker's headstone on left about 15 plots in).
