An accidental sculpture garden of hollow giants
Just outside of Sparta, you’ll come across an unremarkable lot scattered with a few low-key industrial buildings. It’s a pretty typical sight in rural Wisconsin, the sort of place you drive right by without noticing. But you’ll notice this one — the row of colorful fiberglass figures lined up along Highway 21 demand your attention.
And in a field behind these typical buildings you’ll find a most atypical sight — a collection of giant fiberglass molds, some decades old, that have been used to create fiberglass statues all around the planet.
Fast Fiberglass
But before you get to the fiberglass mold graveyard, you’ll see a small, non-descript building. It looks like a garage, but it’s really the headquarters of FAST Fiberglass, the world’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass statues. It’s highly likely you’ve seen a fiberglass figure somewhere in the world that was created right here.
The company began making fiberglass figures sometime in the 1960s. For a while it was known as DWO Fiberglass, named after the initials of then-owner Dave Oswald who designed some of the molds that are still used today. By the 1970s. the name had changed to Creative Display.
The company is responsible for some of Wisconsin’s earliest fiberglass statues, including the World’s Largest Muskie in Hayward and the famous Big Boy statues that greeted diners to the chain of Marc’s Big Boy restaurants from days past. (You can see a fiberglass Big Boy at the Seymour Community Museum, home of the Hamburger Charlie Statue.)
In 1983, the company was renamed again to Fiberglass Animals, Shapes, and Trademark (FAST) Corporation. In 2020 this was officially abbreviated when the company became FAST Fiberglass LLC.
Stroll through a sprawling fiberglass menagerie
This approximately five-acre field holds hundreds of fiberglass molds. And even though it’s commonly known as the Sparta Fiberglass Mold Graveyard, it’s more accurate to call it a fiberglass mold storage yard. It’s not where fiberglass molds go to die. Instead, its where fiberglass statues are born.
Even though the figures look weather-beaten and abandoned, every mold in the field can still be used to make a fresh batch of statues.
At first glance, the molds (many overgrown with creeping vegetation) seem to be scattered across the field in a haphazard jumble. But they are actually loosely organized into thematic sections.
For instance, the fish are grouped with the sharks, the teddy bears are having a little picnic, the musical instruments are stacked together in the middle of the field, and the ice cream cones are served up in a pile.
Photo from the author’s collection.
The different sections are separated by wide pathways that allow for easy access when a stored mold is needed to make a new statue. The pathways also allow for a leisurely stroll through this impromptu art installation.
Each section is filled with things that are both familiar and fantastical. There are boots, skulls, cars, cats, dogs, flowers, ducks, horses, pigs, sports equipment, a lot of mice, and many more unique designs — including a line of themed water slides.
Our latest exploration …
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Bathtub Spring
In southwestern Wisconsin you can find an endless supply of fresh water flowing into a roadside bathtub — a place known as the Bathtub Spring.
Do you know the Muffler Man?
One of the most recognizable fiberglass figures along the United States’ early highway system was the classic Muffler Man. This iconic figure can still be seen along the remnants of Route 66 — from Chicken Boy in Los Angeles to the Second Amendment Cowboy in Amarillo to Mr. Bendo in Chicago.
Only about 180 of these giant gents remain standing today (one of them stands in East Troy at Gus’s Drive-In and another at the Wabeno Logging Museum), but there’s a reclining Muffler Man mold on the western edge of the fiberglass mold yard just waiting to be put back into service.
Admission to the Fiberglass Mold Graveyard is free, but …
The public is welcome to meander around the Sparta fiberglass mold graveyard. However there are a few dangers that owners of FAST Fiberglass want visitors to be aware of.
At the main entrance to the fiberglass yard, there is a sign warning visitors that bees and wasps have been known to make their homes, unannounced, in the molds. Finding one of these would be a little alarming. And they ask that visitors not climb on the molds. That can damage them, of course, but some of the molds have sharp edges and the surfaces can easily flake off and penetrate skin (because of the glass in fiberglass).
Aside from a potential surprise encounter with a hive of bees, the Sparta Fiberglass Mold Graveyard is quite serene and perhaps a little surreal. If you’re a fan of quirky Americana, then spending a quiet afternoon wandering among these fiberglass giants is worth a visit to Sparta.
Sparta Fiberglass Mold Graveyard
- 14177 County Highway Q, Sparta
- GPS Coordinates: 43.96874, -90.782076 [Google Maps]
- What3words: ///blossoming.strictly.prayers
- Online at FAST Fiberglass
