The Big Indian - Can Kingsport Put the Pratt's Mascot Back Together Again

He was known as Honest John or the Big Indian but he was known by everyone in Kingsport.

He was the 33-foot tall fiberglass and wood Indian who towered over Honest John's Gift Shop on Bristol Highway beginning in 1954. When the Super Highway (the new 11-W road to Bristol) opened in 1960, Honest John Barker saw the handwriting on the wall and moved his business over to the new highway. Later the Pratt family bought the business and opened a barbecue restaurant to complement their Big Indian. 

And now the Big Indian has crumpled, falling apart when a crane attempted to lift him off his longtime perch to move him to a new home at a miniature golf course. 

I've written about the Big Indian many times over the years, most recently in 2018 when his Big Head tilted forward. 

Here is that 2018 column, which explains much about the history of the Giant Chief.

(There is a GoFundMe page to raise money to help put him back together again:

 https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-honest-john)

The rumors have been flying ever since The Big Indian’s head fell forward.

The Big Indian – for the uninitiated - is the iconic Chickasaw chief statue that has towered over West Stone Drive since 1960, first over Honest John’s service station and souvenir stand and now over Pratt’s Barbecue.

My Colonial Heights correspondent Susan Pool says this is all the folks out her way are talking about. She has heard:

1 - The Indian used to be located on Center Street.

2 - The Indian used to be four feet taller.

3 - The Indian fell flat on his face onto Stone Drive once.

Correspondent Pool continues, “This thing has been the talk of the town - but hey! it sure beats Washington politics, etc. and other headlines of late. And better than a lot of other grocery store, barber shop, (beauty parlor), water cooler gibberish too.”

Here’s the real story of The Big Indian by someone who has known him since he was born: me.

I can remember when The Big Indian suddenly appeared on Chestnut Ridge, right up the road from my house.

It was March 30, 1954 and a photo of The Big Indian being hoisted up appeared in the next day’s newspaper.

“The biggest Indian ever seen in the Cherokee country showed up on Chestnut Ridge Tuesday Morning. Standing almost 33 feet tall in his moccasins this giant redskin has taken his permanent place on Chestnut Ridge. John Barker built the yet unchristened Indian of plywood, tar paper and mesh wire. When finished the Indian will have a coat of plaster and paint. The work was done in Barker’s basement with the help of Bill Moody and Wayne Hunt. Weighing an estimated 10,000 pounds the Indian actually stands 25 feet 8 inches tall. His height is increased by a three-foot pedestal and a four-foot feather. When finished he will speak to passers-by with a loudspeaker.”

Barker was a clever fellow, a Seebee during World War II, who was a master cabinet maker. Not only did he build The Big Indian, he built his gift shop and service station.

The Big Indian was eventually christened Kaw-Liga, after the Hank Williams song, but the name never seemed to stick. He was always just The Big Indian.

Realtors would even use him for directions. There are many Times News ads from the fifties saying “Turn right just before you get to The Big Indian.”

The Big Indian’s official address at that time was 3949 Bristol Highway.

When the Super Highway – that’s what everyone called Stone Drive -  opened in 1960, Barker moved Honest John’s Shell Service & Gift Shop – and The Big Indian to Stone Drive.

In 1971 he decided it was time to retire and sold his gift shop and restaurant – along with The Big Indian – to the Pratt family, who had Pratt’s Farmland on Supermarket Row.

There was some talk at the time about getting rid of The Big Indian. After all what did a 33-foot tall Chickasaw have to do with a restaurant?

Tom Pratt told me a few years ago, “Dad thought about dumping him in the back and he thought about giving him to Dobyns-Bennett to put in the stadium for a mascot.”

In the end the Pratts just left him standing.

And there he is today, still standing, if not as upright as before. After all The Big Indian is 64, retirement age for many. That’s a long time to be standing in the rain and heat and cold.

Tom Pratt said in the newspaper last week that he has reached out to Pal Barger who has experience with big statues; see the Big Pal holding a hamburger atop the Lynn Garden Drive Pal’s.

Let’s hope that brings a solution. Kingsport wouldn’t be Kingsport without The Big Indian.

XXX

Those rumors:

He was never on Center Street but he was in a different location, on what is now Memorial Blvd.

How tall he is depends on whether you count the three-foot base and the 48-inch headdress. But the Indian himself hasn’t grown.

Since he has been on Stone Drive he has been too far from the road to fall over and block it.

But there used to be a lot of jokes about him blocking Bristol Highway. None of them are suitable for a family newspaper.