If you’ve ever wanted to take a trip just to meet one of your favorite food characters in real life, we have just the quirky travel find for you. America’s vegetable-slinging green spokesman is probably a familiar face in your local grocery store’s freezer aisle, but in Blue Earth, Minn., you can also see the Jolly Green Giant in all of his giant, 55.5-foot glory.
Perched off Minnesota’s Route 169, the 8,000-pound statue is a welcoming sight after driving past hours of cornfields and farmland. The incredible fiberglass statue was built in 1978 and welcomes passersby to the Valley of the Green Giant, where the canned and frozen vegetable company grows its corn, peas and other produce.
It’s only fitting that the Jolly Green Giant stands guard over the endless fields of vegetables, since the mascot’s impressive stature and green hue are both attributed to his healthy diet chock full of vegetables.
Stop by the statue on your way through Minnesota to take a few fun photos with the gargantuan Jolly Green Giant, and don’t miss the nearby Little Red Barn, which has information about the statue, as well as a figure of Sprout, the Jolly Green Giant’s loyal companion. The Jolly Green Giant Statue is free to visit, as is the nearby Little Red Barn.
(Main image: Dougtone used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license)
