Farmer Turns Yard Into a Fantasyland

NEW HOLLAND, Ill. — If he hadn’t seen that giant pig, Harold Harnacke wouldn’t be looking for the seven-foot-tall rooster today.

Harnacke saw the big fiberglass pig in Poplar Bluff, Mo. He wanted to buy it, but the price was too high.

He tracked down the manufacturer, hoping to get a better price. The manufacturer was out of business but had one unpainted pig left.

Harnacke bought it and painted it like a Hampshire, and that was the beginning of it all.

That was about four years ago. Now, he has well over 100 decorative pieces in the front yard of his farm home two miles south of New Holland. He is king of the Giant Lawn Ornaments.

“My gosh, all the attraction that pig has caused!” said Harnacke, who has grown accustomed to the sound of screeching tires as motorists stop to stare. “I could have sold it a hundred times over.”

No Plastic Flamingo

These aren’t run-of-the-mill flamingos or wooden cutouts. You can see those anywhere. Harnacke has a fish leaping from a pond that is bigger than the fisherman trying to catch it. Next to it is another pig, bearing a strong resemblance to Porky and holding a sign: “Welcome. The Harnackes.”

There is an Indian living in peace with several cowboys. There are geese, donkeys, deer, ducks, chickens, cows, road-runners, a zebra, a buffalo, a barn and silo, Clydesdales pulling a wagon, a Mexican with burros, a small windmill and a life-size Hereford bull.

Most of the figures are made of concrete and fiberglass. Harnacke collected them on trips through Minnesota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri.

“I just happened upon them,” Harnacke says. “If you’re interested, you’ll find them.”

In winter he makes wooden lawn decorations in his basement. The first winter he spent doing that was a particularly long one, and he had time to make a train with an engine, six cars and a caboose. Lining his driveway are nine wooden cardinals and blue jays.

Search for Right Rooster

He is still looking for a seven-foot-tall rooster to perch atop his miniature barn.