Kingsport, Tennessee: Big John: Giant Native American

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Pratt's Barn

Address:: 1225 E. Stone Drive, Kingsport, TN
Directions:: Pratt's Barn. I-181 to Stone Drive exit. East about three miles, south side of the road.
RA Rates:: Worth a Detour

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Big John: Giant Native American.

Big John: Giant Native American

Tall, skinny, nearly nude Native. Home-built by John Barker in 1954. 32 feet tall, with tense hands.

Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Kingsport, Tennessee - The Incredible Indian Head Transplant

Big John: Giant Indian: Big John, a giant Indian outside Pratts BBQ Barn in Kingsport, Tennessee, broke his neck in early April 2018. [04/26/2018] Complete Story...

Visitor Tips and News About Big John: Giant Native American

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Giant Indian.

Giant Indian

The Giant Indian is in great shape; looks to have been painted recently.

[Lindsey, 01/20/2014]

Big Indian.

Pratt's Barn, Big Indian

During summers off from the University of Tennessee, I used to serve up some mean breakfast and barbecue at Pratt's Barn in Kingsport. The barbecue was good: tender and tangy! We also served breakfast with the best biscuits and sawmill gravy in town. I'm living in Kentucky now, and I don't know if they still serve breakfast, but try to make it in for a meal. Be sweet to the waitress....and tip her well, she's working hard, I can assure you.

[Laura, 01/11/2008]

Big Indian

The Indian still stands along Stone Drive in East Kingsport. Stone Drive is also US-11-W. The wife and I were raised in Kingsport and had supper at Pratts resently. The Indian has been a part of our lives since we were both small children. For locals the Indian in part represents the city's only high school, Kingsport's Dobyns-Bennette High, known as "The Indians." Once an Indian always an Indian, the saying goes.

This location is the second home for the Indian. He has stood where he is since the early 1960s, when the new 11-W was built through the area where Pratts is now located, bypassing "downtown." The Indian stood on the ole US-11-W, now Hghiway 126, on what is known as Chestnut Ridge, about 2 miles as the crow files east of where he now stands. It was front page news the day "Kaw-Liga" was moved off the Ridge to his current home.

The old Pratt's location still stands as a private dwelling. The wife and I remember what a special treat it was to be taken to Pratt's when it was on the ridge for a hand dipped cone.

[Dave Butler, 03/15/2006]

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