1980 Easter Island Head

New Berlin, Wisconsin

Joe Stanke, a professional artist, had always been fascinated by the mysterious Moai of Easter Island; he even has a stained-glass window of one on his door. So in 1980 he and some friends took wood, metal mesh, and cement plaster, and built one on his front lawn.

Joe told a local National Public Radio affiliate that he was inspired to build the head after he saw a model of one at a museum. He realized that he could use a ruler to take detailed measurements of the head when no one was looking. "I just doubled everything." The resulting head is nine feet wide and 14 feet tall.

According to Joe, many people who pose with the statue like to stick their fingers up its nose. He doesn't mind that, but he does mind if people climb on the head, and he will yell at them from his window if they do. He told NPR that he has a copy of a Roadside America tip from 2010, recalling one encounter in which the trespassers wrote that they "ran off in fear of our lives." Joe laughed about that.

Joe has said that he would like his ashes entombed in the head after he dies, although he's not certain if that will actually happen.