Haubstadt, Indiana: Martini-Drinking Pink Elephant

The pink elephant is still swilling her martini at the Hipp Nursery. The entry has a long frontage road so you can see over ten animal statues lining the sides of the road.

The business is closed Sundays. But you can still go in and see everything.

We loved this one! The picture we took with the martini-drinking elephant got more "likes" and comments on Facebook than most of our other road trip pics.

The first hint that something special was going on at the Jim Hipp Nursery was the replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse built alongside a pond, complete with a huge fish leaping out of the water - all clearly visible while traveling along I-64. Upon entering the nursery driveway I found a herd of fiberglass buffalo, along with many trees and bushes pruned into interesting shapes and animals. Further down the driveway were a couple of life-sized fiberglass Clydesdale horses, pulling a covered wagon with more horses in tow. Past the horses were two pink fiberglass elephants, one large and one small -- the larger holding a martini glass in it's trunk. Past the elephants you enter the nursery proper, where several live peacocks walk the premises.

I searched around for the owner and learned he was digging up a tree for a customer, so I checked things out further. I found more fiberglass elephants, a psychotic looking bugs bunny, a clown head trash can decoration, more peacocks, another elephant and a giant chair. The owner appeared and said that photos were permitted and I should "go ahead and shoot whatever I wanted, just nothing down by the houses."

I just got back tonight (6/11/00) from a weekend trip to Holiday World at Santa Claus, IN. On the way home, we left I 64 at Exit 25, just north of Evansville, IN, and took US 41 north. About 1/2 mile north of I 64 on the east side of US 41 is the Jim Hipp Nursery (plants, not babies) that has quite a collection of large animal statues of plaster or plastic, all in full color, including a pink elephant and natural-colored giraffe and 2 bison.