Nashville, North Carolina: Yogi Bear Honey Fried Chicken Statues

Great place -- a lot to see. The owner is knowledgeable and very nice.

Great big statues! Fun stop!

They're back! Yogi, Boo Boo, and Ranger Smith, probably the last surviving statues from the Yogi Bear Honey Fried Chicken chain, have been repaired, repainted, restored, and installed outside Leon Parker Signs. A couple years ago, Leon bought them from the owner of the trailer park in Rocky Mount where they had been for at least the last 30 to 40 years (and possibly longer). Leon's work included lots of sanding, patching, and painting as well as fabricating a new hand and foot for Ranger Smith. Period photos, provided by Joel Baker of American Giants, were used to match the original paint colors, and replica decals from manufacturer International Fiberglass adorn each statue.

Lots of other things to see at Leon's too, including antique metal Coca-Cola signs, gas pumps, taxidermy, and a bunch of vintage gas station signs put up around the property. Cool place. Kind of out of the way, but worth the drive out there. Interesting side note: Leon told me that for about 15 years or so, he gave scrap leftover reflective sign material to Vollis Simpson to use in his whirligigs.

Just received word that the Yogi Bear Statues that were in the Rocky Mount trailer park are being restored. When their makeover is complete this Fall, the statues will have a new home in Nashville, North Carolina, at Leon Parker Signs.

Damn. Yogi, Boo Boo, and the Ranger are gone. I saw them a month or two ago when I showed them to a friend, so their removal is relatively recent.