Hendersonville, North Carolina - Harry's Grill and Piggy's Ice

Origins of the mysterious Yogi Bear and Boo Boo statues: When I was a kid, growing up in Sacramento during the late '60s and early '70s, my family used to patronize a burger chain called Yogi Bear Burgers. One location was at 2445 Arden Way (which is now a Spudnuts doughnut shop). They hired employees to stand outside their burger shop and wave to traffic wearing a Yogi Bear costume and a Ranger Smith costume. Their outside seating featured dark green conical umbrellas, made to resemble pine trees. The statues in the photo are from that burger chain. [Brian Boyle, 10/03/2009]

There's a cluster of advertising statues -- including a bunch of cows, some pink elephants, an Esso tiger, two Shoney's Big Boys, a chef holding a burger, and Yogi Bear and Boo Boo -- at a restaurant called Harry's Grill and Piggy's Ice and at its next door neighbor, Thompson's Antiques. The statues have been accumulating there since 1980, when the ice cream store (then just known as Piggy's Ice) first opened.

Most of them have been gathered from other businesses in the Carolinas, although Yogi doesn't look like he's a relic from the North Carolina-based Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken chain, mostly because he's not holding a drumstick. And I've never seen the big burger-holding chef before, so have no idea where he's from. There's more inside, including a Colonel Sanders statue, a Ronald McDonald, and lots of vintage signs, as well as a full-size Hooterville Jail. [Dean Jeffrey, 02/14/2009]