The new Big Tom
After the fire, a symbolic statue egg was placed on the concrete slab where the new 'Big Tom' currently resides. During the last days of July, 1998, the egg "hatched" in the form of a small turkey.
On Tuesday, August 4th, 1998, the small turkey was stolen! Luckily it was retrieved.
The new statue is over 20 feet tall and bronze in color. (The origonal was 16 feet tall.) Including the tail, the width of the big turkey is 17 feet. Weighing in at over 5,000 pounds, 'Big Tom' has just over 1,000 pounds of steel reinforing its body. The legs were made a little shorter and stouter than a normal turkey to better handle the weight. There are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 fiberglass feathers on 'Big Tom' which took D.W.O. Fiberglass Company over 2000 hours to complete.
In August of 1998, the new 'Big Tom' arrived at 9 A.M. on a Saturday morning. Arriving on a flatbed trailer in three seperate pieces, the turkey toke eight hours to be put together.
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