Pocatello, Idaho
When I first visited Pocatello to tour ISU, my dad and I learned about the Museum of Clean in town and it’s safe to say it was an instant decision to visit. While this entire museum could make up a post of its own, and I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t been to check it out, this post will be highlighting one feature in particular: the muffler man that resides inside.
I had just learned about the official term “muffler man” within the last few weeks. Before my current knowledge, I just figured that “Big Don”, the supersized statue of a janitor, was just the cherry on top of an entire museum of oddities.
However, muffler men are actually quite sought after in the U.S. I’ll dive into the history of the concept as a whole in a second, but first of all, I’d like to mention Pocatello’s very own.
I found a bit of background on Big Don in particular from American Giants (usagiants.com), a blog entirely about these roadside attractions, and their female counterparts “uniroyal gals”. Big Don originally started out as a cowboy and stood in front of the Hurricane Car Wash in Nampa, Idaho in the late 1990s. At some point in the early 2000s, this larger-than-life janitor was transferred to Bridger, Montana, and then to a casino in 2003. In 2016 he was purchased by the Museum of Clean to be used as a janitor statue and has left behind the cowboy outfit for a redesigned look of a custodian.
Now to the history of muffler men and uniroyal gals as a whole:
Muffler Men: Produced between the 1960s-1970s, Muffler Men are large fiberglass statues, ranging from 18-25 feet tall that were created to promote roadside businesses and attract customers to landmarks. Although production has stopped, these giant men can still be seen all throughout America, wearing various attire and accessories. The coined term “Muffler Man” didn’t start until the 1990s, as the first statue of their kind was in the likeness of Paul Bunyan holding an axe, and were previously known simply as “giant men”. It wasn’t until the founders of roadsideamerica.com noticed a pattern of many of the men holding car parts for various businesses, most notably mufflers, that the concept of “muffler men” began.
Uniroyal Gals: Also created within the 1960s era, uniroyal gals were made to be a second larger-than-life roadside attraction to act as a companion of sorts for the much more common muffler men. Uniroyal gals share the same features of a muffler man, in terms of height, materials, and various attire, the only true difference being the gender. Created as a gimmick by the Uniroyal Tire Company in the 1950s, uniroyal gals were much slower to catch on, making them a much rarer find in the United States. Idaho has one of our very own, however, which can be found in Blackfoot in front of Martha’s Cafe.
I have yet to have visited this one, but if I ever get the chance, I’ll update it here. For now, here’s a photo of her via Roadside America’s website:
