Texaco Big Friend: Former Home Giant

Atlanta, Illinois

Our visit to Pahrump, Nevada, seeking a rare Texaco "Big Friend" reminded us that even large statues can be invisible to locals. A young woman at a convenience store only a mile from "The Home Giant" -- and on the same road -- swore up and down that in her whole life in Pahrump she had never seen a large statue of a man.

Two minutes later we were at the base of the big guy at Sun Valley Homes. He's not a standard Muffler Man, but a modified Texaco Big Friend (made by International Fiberglass in the 1960s). Owner Jack Stanton paid Young Electric Sign Co. $18,000 for this old Big Friend in 1981. He had him painted green, orange, and white -- Irish colors -- and completed the transformation with a Robin Hood-type feathered cap.

The statue was mounted on a sign above a couple of model pre-fab homes, and was used prominently in advertisements by the business.

In case you were wondering, Pahrump (puh-rump) in the Indigenous language means "water rock."

April 2013: After a hasty scrapping of The Home Giant as part of the demise of Sun Valley Homes, the statue was taken to Pahrump Valley Disposal, under a tarp. The business considered restoring him to use a sign, probably adopting a new identity (They ignored our suggestion: "Scrappy the Salvage Titan"). He sustained a caved-in chest and amputation of an arm and a hand.

March 2016: The scrap yard gutted the giant for metal, and his remains wound up as an outdoor display at the Pahrump Valley Museum. Sprawled on the ground, it resembled a dead fairy tale character eaten by monster birds.

October 2016: The badly damaged pieces of the Home Giant were loaded into a truck and hauled east to Illinois for restoration. He would not return to Pahrump.

May 2024: After nearly eight years in a warehouse, the Home Giant, now restored to his original Texaco Big Friend appearance, was erected on a concrete pad outside of the American Giants Museum.