Kingsport, Tennessee -
Giant Skinny Indian

Giant Skinny Indian

The tall, skinny, nearly nude Native stands. Home-built, maybe 25 feet tall, with tense hands and a "Whatever, dude," expression. Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Pratt's Barn, Big Indian

During summers off from the University of Tennessee, I used to serve up some mean breakfast and barbecue at Pratt's Barn in Kingsport. The barbecue was good: tender and tangy! We also served breakfast with the best biscuits and sawmill gravy in town. I'm living in Kentucky now, and I don't know if they still serve breakfast, but try to make it in for a meal. Be sweet to the waitress....and tip her well, she's working hard, I can assure you. [Laura, 01/11/2008]

Big Indian

The Indian still stands along Stone Drive in East Kingsport. Stone Drive is also US-11-W. The wife and I were raised in Kingsport and had supper at Pratts resently. The Indian has been a part of our lives since we were both small children. For locals the Indian in part represents the city's only high school, Kingsport's Dobyns-Bennette High, known as "The Indians." Once an Indian always an Indian, the saying goes.

This location is the second home for the Indian. He has stood where he is since the early 1960s, when the new 11-W was built through the area where Pratts is now located, bypassing "downtown." The Indian stood on the ole US-11-W, now Hghiway 126, on what is known as Chestnut Ridge, about 2 miles as the crow files east of where he now stands. It was front page news the day "Kaw-Liga" was moved off the Ridge to his current home.

The old Pratt's location still stands as a private dwelling. The wife and I remember what a special treat it was to be taken to Pratt's when it was on the ridge for a hand dipped cone. [Dave Butler, 03/15/2006]

Huge Indian - Vague Recollection

I am 36 years old and lived in Kingsport from 1965 to 1977, The Indian has been in front of Pratt's as long as I can remember. I recall that sometime in the mid-1970s a tornado passed by the Indian, left him standing but removed his loincloth. The entire city was scandalized to find out that the Indian chieftain was in fact an Indian maiden. If I recall correctly (I may have been 11 years at the oldest) a picture of the Indian sans loincloth made front page in the Kingsport Times-News the next morning. Thanks for bringing back a childhood memory. [Don Addison, 08/13/2001]

Huge Indian

This big guy has been standing in front of Pratts BBQ Barn for at least 25 years. He provides humor for the locals when his skirt periodically comes off. He is about 5 miles from the "Pals Man" in Kingsport. [Melanie Tadlock Shaffer, 02/25/2001]