Statue of the Founder of Whataburger
Corpus Christi, Texas
Cattle are among the more abundant natural resources of Texas, so it makes sense that someone in Texas would funnel that meat into a fast food burger chain. That someone was Harmon Dobson, and that chain is Whataburger, which he started in a Corpus Christi shack in 1950, and which today numbers some 700 restaurants, the majority of them still in Texas.
Harmon never lived to see his shack become a regional burger empire; he died in a plane crash in 1967. He also never lived to see his life-size statue unveiled just outside Whataburger's fancy Corpus Christi flagship store in 1999. Bronze Harmon now sits on a bronze bench just inside the main entrance, his arm slung across the bench back as an invitation to join him while you eat your Whataburger. It's a shrine to "Our Founder." He has a toothy grin and a shirt pocket full of cigars.