Skip to Main Content

John Wayne's head.

13-Ton Boulder Carved Into John Wayne's Head

Field review by the editors.

Lubbock, Texas

In early 1979 a giant boulder nearly fell off of a cliff and onto Malibu, California. Engineers got to work, closed the Pacific Coast Highway, yanked down the rock, then blew it up with dynamite. Crowds cheered. A film producer whose home would have been in the path of the rock wrote a screenplay about it, titled "The Rock," but Hollywood lost interest.

Brett-Livingstone Strong didn't. He was 25 years old, a new immigrant from Australia. He gave the engineers $100 from his pocket, and they gave him a 13 ton chunk of the rock. Strong trucked the rock 30 miles east to a shopping center parking lot in Century City. He hinted that he would carve it into a head of California governor Jerry Brown. But over the next ten weeks, as curious spectators watched, Strong instead carved it into a very good likeness of John Wayne. Strong said that Wayne had volunteered to sponsor him for his green card.

John Wayne's head in the library.

Strong called the head "Life-Time-Light" and sold it to an Arizona real estate tycoon, reportedly for a million dollars. The tycoon displayed it at Grauman's Chinese Theatre for a year, then put it in storage. He eventually donated it to Lubbock Christian University, which in 1991 renamed it "Spirit of Independence" and put it in its library. It's been there ever since.

The university takes its holy literature literally. A gallery of paintings next to John Wayne's head, "Visions of Revelation," painted in the mid-1950s by an artist named A. Hart, visually conveys the mystical final book of the Bible. One, "The First Bowl of Wrath," shows an angel with beams of light that appear to fry unlucky humans with radiation burns. Another, "War in Heaven," shows dead bodies floating on clouds. There's a painting of a multi-headed red dragon spewing water from its mouths, and another of several near-naked men stomping grapes whose juice turns into a river of blood that's drowning a horse.

Visions of Revelation, 1954.
Visions of Revelation, 1954.

The giant, grinning head of John Wayne might seem inappropriate in such a place, but a plaque next to it suggests otherwise, noting that Wayne's film characters were always "hard-working, honest, courageous, fiercely independent, God-fearing, polite (especially to women)" and that "many years after his death, he still appears on lists of most-admired Americans."

The librarian told us that the University welcomes visitors, and that a family had stopped by only hours earlier after reading about the head on RoadsideAmerica.com. "I asked the son, 'Are you going to be enrolling at LCU?'" the librarian said. "And he said, 'No, I'm only here for John Wayne.'"

13-Ton Boulder Carved Into John Wayne's Head

Lubbock Christian University

Address:
Dover Ave., Lubbock, TX
Directions:
In the Moody Library/Mabee Learning Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University, which is on the west edge of the city. Take I-27 to the Hwy 289 loop and drive west. Exit at 19th St. and drive east. The campus will quickly be on the right. Turn right onto Dover Ave. The library will be the third building on the right. Park in the lot and walk around to the entrance, which is on the opposite side.
Hours:
Open daily, hours vary with school year (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
806-720-7326
RA Rates:
Major Fun
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

Tiny ChurchTiny Church, Lubbock, TX - 2 mi.
National Ranching Heritage CenterNational Ranching Heritage Center, Lubbock, TX - 3 mi.
Chunk of the Blarney StoneChunk of the Blarney Stone, Lubbock, TX - 3 mi.
In the region:
Bronze Statue of Big Mammoth Mom and Baby, Lubbock, TX - 4 mi.

More Quirky Attractions in Texas

Stories, reports and tips on tourist attractions and odd sights in Texas.

Explore Thousands of Unique Roadside Landmarks!

Strange and amusing destinations in the US and Canada are our specialty. Start here.
Use RoadsideAmerica.com's Attraction Maps to plan your next road trip.

My Sights

My Sights on Roadside America

Save Cool Vacation Destinations! ...Try My Sights

Mobile Apps

Roadside America app: iPhone, iPad Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. On-route maps, 1,000s of photos, special research targets! ...More

Roadside Presidents app: iPhone, iPad Roadside Presidents app for iPhone, iPad. POTUS landmarks, oddities. ...More

Texas Latest Tips and Stories

Latest Visitor Tips

Sight of the Week

Sight of the Week

JFK's World Famous Twine Ball, Highland, Wisconsin (Mar 18-24, 2024)

SotW Archive

USA and Canada Tips and Stories

More Sightings