News

Oct 30, 2024

Cape Coral's Big John statue, damaged by Hurricane Ian, set for repair

For 55 years, Big John has stood watch over Cape Coral. The brawny, grinning, 28-foot-tall giant looms over Big John's Plaza in the South Cape. But Big John hasn't been himself for the last two years.

For 55 years, Big John has stood watch over Cape Coral. The brawny, grinning, 28-foot-tall giant looms over Big John's Plaza in the South Cape.

But Big John hasn't been himself for the last two years.

Not since Hurricane Ian.

The storm's Category 4 winds badly damaged the popular statue, twisting his steel-and-fiberglass body and causing his U.S. flag-covered torso to slip down over his blue-jeaned legs. A steel support pole broke through the top of Big John's head.

On top of that, recent hurricanes Helene and Milton came along and damaged Big John even more. That includes minor cracks in his fiberglass chest.

Big John needs a lot of work, says owner Elmer Tabor. And now — after talking about it for more than a year — he's finally ready to give Big John the TLC he needs.

Tabor and Clint Strand of Cape company Brand 1 Ink have three crane companies on standby, they say, and they’re shooting for early November to remove the 6,000-pound statue and transport it to Strand's shop in Cape Coral.

"Big John will be restored, 100-percent, back to his former glory," says Strand, who owns the screen-printing and sign company, but previously worked doing collision repairs on vehicles.

If all goes well, Big John could be repaired in about four weeks, Strand says. Then he'll be reinstalled in his long-held spot overlooking Southeast 47th Terrace in downtown Cape Coral (aka South Cape).

Big John has been a part of the Cape’s landscape since 1969, when he arrived in the city with the grocery store Big John's Foodway. Now the grocery-sack-toting statue is an icon and an easy-to-spot landmark.

Technically, Big John's Plaza is called Cape Coral Town Center. That’s the name Tabor gave it when he bought the place in 1990.

But the new name never caught on.

“Everyone still knows it as Big John’s Plaza,” Tabor said in 2023.

Big John is one of 13 original statues made for the Illinois-based Big John's grocery-store chain in the '60s, and he’s one of just four left in existence, Tabor says.

Roadside America — a website that tracks kitschy tourist sites in the United States — lists Big John as one of its many "quirky attractions in Florida."

That's why Big John is too important to leave damaged, Tabor says. He estimates he's gotten about 1,000 phone calls since Ian damaged the statue on Sept. 28, 2022, and they've all been asking the same question: "What's going on with Big John?"

"He's such an icon in the area," Tabor says. "And so many kids in Cape Coral — like me — grew up with him."

Tabor wants to preserve that small part of Cape Coral's history. Especially during a time when city leaders don't seem much interested in history, he says.

"The city council is doing their damndest to destroy all the history in Cape Coral, like the Yacht Club (damaged by Ian and demolished by the city in April 2024 to make room for new buildings and amenities)," he says. "And the only reason Big John is not getting destroyed is because he's in private ownership.

"So we’re going to make sure that Big John stands another 100 years."

Tabor and Strand plan to pick an upcoming Sunday — tentatively Nov. 10 — to remove the statue from its pedestal on Southeast 47th Terrace. They'll bring in a crane and a flatbed truck, unbolt and take apart the statue, load it onto the truck and transport it to Strand's shop in the Cape Coral Industrial Park, Strand says.

They've been talking about doing this for at least 15 months, but it hasn't been easy making the time — and the room — for the project, Strand says.

"I run a really, really busy company, and I haven't really had time to dedicate to it," Strand says. "Nor do I have the room in my building to fit Big John in."

To make space for the 28-foot-tall statue, Strand says he recently bought a shipping container to store the equipment in his building and clear space for the repair job.

Strand expects most of the work will be fiberglass repair, but he won't know for sure until he takes apart Big John and sees what's going on with the steel support structure underneath the fiberglass shell.

"Big John is a fiberglass structure," Strand says. "So just as we would repair a crack in a boat, we're going to repair all the cracks (in Big John), fiberglass them back together, prime everything appropriately and then paint it back."

The repair will cost an estimated $36,000, Strand says. Maybe slightly more.

"That's the closest we could get without dissecting him and finding out how much steel we have to get into," Tabor says. "I don't think there's going to be a lot. I think most of it looks like it's going to be fiberglass. But until we get him apart, we won't have a clue."

It's cheaper to do the work in Cape Coral than ship the statue out of state, Tabor says. He found a West Virginia farmer who owns the original mold to make Big John's fiberglass shell, but he says it would cost about $15,000 to ship Big John there and back. And it'll likely take much longer than a month to do the repairs.

Read more about Big John on the Roadside America website: roadsideamerica.com/story/11725.

Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at [email protected]

Follow or message him on social media: Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).