The Fitzgerald chicken topiary is an under-construction

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

Fitzgerald, Georgia Fitzgerald is a city in and the county seat of Ben Hill County, Georgia, Ben Hill County in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, it had a population of 9,05 ...

, United States. Construction began in 2019 and as of 2021, the chicken-shaped skeletal frame is complete. Standing at approximately tall, it is the largest structure of a chicken in the world and, when complete, will be the world's tallest topiary.

History

is a small city in the southern part of the state with a population of about 9,000. The town is noted for its population of wild Burmese chickens that live in and around the main part of the city. In 2019, city leaders announced the creation of a large topiary in the shape of a chicken as a way to attract tourism to the city. The project was spearheaded by Mayor Jim Puckett, who said the

roadside attraction A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than actually being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboards. T ...

could target drivers on the nearby

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

, which is a 20-minute drive from the city. The project was announced in 2019, and while it was initially planned to be completed by later that year, the project experienced delays due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, as well as the designer of the topiary (

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

-based topiary artist Topiary Joe) having to take time off to recover from surgery. By May 2021, work was completed on the steel skeletal structure of the topiary, with a total of weight of about and a height of about tall. In addition, the bottom of the structure would contain a room that tourists could rent out as a

honeymoon suite Honeymoon Suite is a Canadian rock band formed in 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The band's name was a nod to the fact that Niagara Falls is the unofficial honeymoon capital of the world. History 1981–1985 The band was originally formed ...

or a

bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...

. With the completion of the skeleton, local television station

WMAZ-TV WMAZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Macon, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Gray Highway on the northeast side of Macon; its transmitter is lo ...

called it "the world's largest chicken", while NPR stated that the finished project would be "the largest topiary in the world". Construction of the topiary was paid for by a

special-purpose local-option sales tax A special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) is a financing method for funding capital outlay projects in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is an optional 1% sales tax levied by any county for the purpose of funding the building of parks, scho ...

(SPLOST) that had been directed towards tourism. While the initial cost for the project was expected to be $150,000, the cost eventually rose to over twice this amount. While Mayor Puckett defended the spending as an investment in tourism that would deliver a strong

return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...

(noting that the chicken project had been covered on the front page of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' twice since it was announced), others in the city were opposed to the spending, and, according to NPR, the mayoral elections in November 2021 served as a "giant chicken referendum". Puckett lost reelection, with about 91 percent of voters voting against him, and following this, the city council put a freeze on new spending for the project until the newly elected mayor took office in January 2022.

History

See also

Notes

References

Further reading