Marietta, Georgia: The Big Chicken

Growing up in Marietta/Cobb County, the locals always described directions in colloquial terms. My favorite was "Take Roswell Road to the Big Chicken' and turn Left on the 'Four Lane'." Translation: Find the KFC Chicken on the Northeast Corner of US-41. Later, the highway was named the "Cobb Parkway," but anyone who lived in Cobb County referred to it as either "Forty-one" or the "Four Lane Highway." Prior to the completion of I-75 in the mid 1970s, traffic exited onto "Forty-one" just north of the Big Chicken and proceeded north past Cartersville, GA.

I recall KFC selling a lot of chicken to both travelers and locals when the traffic was a lot heavier.

You can't really understand the place of the Big Chicken in the lore of greater metropolitan Atlanta without knowing its unique role in giving directions to just about any place between Savannah and Chattanooga. "Go out past the Big Chicken," "Make like you're going to the Big Chicken, but you turn off before it," "If you pass the Big Chicken, you've gone too far." I've been given directions that involved going to the Big Chicken and then _turning around_ and coming back a little ways, and, my personal favorite: "Turn right off the exit ramp -- if you turn left you'll go to the Big Chicken. Don't go that way." We got lost, and found our way back on course by -- how else? -- swinging by the Big Chicken and figuring out which way we should have gone.

Well I've been to The Big Chicken several times because my family owns it. It's truly a landmark in Marietta. Several years back, when the tornado hit the Chicken, a man (who happened to be a clown) got up a lot of people who tried to buy the Chicken from my family. He wanted to put chickens everywhere. He was even noted in the local newspaper as saying that he wanted to put one on the moon. To say the least he didn't have the opportunity to buy it from my family.

There is another landmark in Kennesaw, Georgia that used to belong to my family. It was my Great-Grandfathers cotton gin back in the day. Kennesaw is the home of The General. It is a train that was stolen by the Yankees during the Civil War. It was a great homecoming for the Train once it came back to Kennesaw. Everyone was there, including my Great-Grandfather and Jimmy Carter, who rode on the train. Well I guess I could give more history of the area but you really don't want to hear it.

The Big Chicken is actually a very decorative, still active Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant. It was recently renovated due to damage by a tornado. It has revolving eyes and a beak that opens and closes. It is truly a magnificent landmark.

"The Big Chicken has been a landmark for decades. It sits on the corner of US 41 and Ga highway 120, and can be seen from I-75 South. This landmark has been mentioned on Designing Women, a question on Jeopardy, and is a question in the latest edition of Trivial Pursuit. An Altavista search of 'The Big Chicken' will return several pointers to our landmark, including a VR movie."