The original fiberglass peanut quickly became a landmark along Interstate 75.

World's Largest Peanut

Ashburn, Georgia

On November 15, 1974, the town of Durant, Oklahoma, unveiled what it proudly called the World's Largest Peanut.

Who's first in peanuts? Now you know.

Only three months later, the town of Ashburn, Georgia, unveiled a peanut that was much, much larger.

The Ashburn peanut, made of fiberglass, was the vision of Turner County Chamber of Commerce president John R. Rogers, and was designed by Valdosta architect (and Ashburn native) Arthur Riddick Smith Jr.

Rogers and Smith never actually said that their peanut was the world's largest, but they didn't have to. The awestruck public quickly gave it that title.

Over 40 feet high, the goober Goliath was ringed by a golden crown labeled, "Georgia 1st in Peanuts." Multicolor bicycle reflectors served as crown jewels that glowed when the monument was floodlit at night. The tall, circular brick pedestal of the monument held a hidden motor that slowly rotated the peanut like a giant mug of root beer.

Conceived as an unmissable Turner County landmark and tribute to local farmers, the peanut was meant to stand at an Interstate 75 rest area just north of town. That plan fell through, so the peanut monument was instead erected in Ashburn, next to the interstate and just outside of its property line. In the 1980s, either through carelessness or spite, pine trees were planted along the freeway that blocked the view of the peanut. It took an act of the Georgia Legislature in 1998, designating the peanut the official state peanut monument, to get the pine trees cut down.

Hurricane Michael toppled the old peanut and its crown in October 2018.

A new peanut was hoisted into place in June 2023.

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael -- with callous disregard for landmarks and structures -- roared into Turner County. The peanut was toppled and severely smashed when it hit the ground. Although Ashburn felt terrible about it, the peanut restoration was postponed to repair other, more critical local wreckage, and then further delayed by the Covid pandemic.

"The original plan was just to fix the fiberglass," said current Chamber of Commerce executive director Ashley Miller, "but at that point it was already over 40 years old, and I love Turner County but we'd had a bunch of rednecks shootin' at the peanut. There was holes in it."

Ashley was nonetheless committed to the monument's resurrection. "I was beaten' that drum because I was the one getting the phone calls from the public," she told us. 'Where's the peanut?' 'I miss the peanut!'"

The new peanut is larger and made of bullet-deflecting steel.

(Durant, Oklahoma, was quiet about its own peanut ruminations, perhaps shell-shocked that a battered Ashburn might still arise from the rubble.)

And Ashburn did make a comeback. A new, non-rotating peanut, larger than the original and built of bullet-deflecting steel, was crafted by local artisan Cole Sercer, as well as a new crown that glowed with color-changing LEDs. Both were hoisted into place atop the brick pedestal on June 12, 2023. "It is strong," said Ashley of the peanut, "but it's also metal. I worry that it's gonna get struck by lightning some day, and I don't know if I have another nut in me."

Well, there's always Turner County's other claim to fame: fire ants. "You gotta celebrate what you have," said Ashley with a laugh, "and we got fire ants and peanuts, plenty of both."

Color-shifting LED crown at night.