Mark Cline’s Creations Help Celebrate Highway’s Anniversary
One hundred years ago, U.S. Route 66 was established as one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System.
Founded on Nov. 11, 1926, the storied highway ran from Chicago, Ill., through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, terminating in Santa Monica, Calif.
Along those 2,448 miles, fiberglass giants, or muffler men, used to stand sentinel, beckoning motorists to stop in for a bite at the diners that dotted the highway or have their oil checked at a service station.
Then came the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which funded the modern Interstate Highway System. Route 66 with its narrow lanes and sharp turns found itself being bypassed by motorists in favor of the more navigable Interstate highways. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985.
Remnants of the old highway still exist today and people still seek its presence to experience the nostalgia of a time long gone. As the attractions along the road disappeared, so did the giants. Some of them still kept their footing, but most of them fell into disrepair. Because of their immense size, they were difficult to restore. International Fiberglass of Venice, Calif., which manufactured the giants, replaced them with 14-footers that took up less space but they too disappeared over time.
With the centennial of Route 66, there was interest in restoring the muffler men to the landscape of the old highway. This is where local entertainer and roadside attraction owner Mark Cline comes in.
Cline has always had an interest in roadside giants. He recalls camping with his family as a young boy in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at a place called Pirate Land. In front of the campground was a huge fiberglass pirate. After a photo op with the giant, Cline stood there marveling at the giant, wondering what it was made of. He felt like the pirate was trying to communicate with him, telling him that his future self could possibly become a giant maker one day.
SPACE COWBOY Buck Atom is one of Mark Cline’s giants commissioned by Tulsa, Okla., business owner Mary Beth Babcock. This particular giant can be found in front of Babcock’s Cosmic Curios shop.
“I had started building these giants not particularly for Route 66 but for other businesses,” said Cline in a recent interview.
Cline was contacted by Joel Baker, a Colorado man known as the “Godfather of the Giants.” Baker is a longtime fan of roadside giants. He finds out where they are, logs them, and makes videos for his YouTube channel “American Giants.” Baker asked Cline about restoring one of them.
“He’s the go-to man. When people want something done with their giant, they get in touch with him,” Cline said.
People are now contacting Cline directly about restoring and constructing fiberglass giants. His first order for a Route 66 giant came from Mary Beth Babcock who commissioned a space cowboy, “Buck Atom,” to stand outside her gift shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma – Cosmic Curios.
Eventually Buck Atom got lonely and needed a mate. Thus Stella Atom, a space cowgirl, came into being.
Cline has created a total of five giants in Tulsa, including Rosie the Riveter and Cowboy Bob.
A 25-foot Santa Claus is now in the works.
It takes Cline about a month to complete each giant and Cline often has five to six projects going on at one time.
“It’s a hot, sweaty, nasty job,” Cline said.
He uses several different molds – one might be waving or have something in his hands. Cline builds a lot of cowboys, especially for points out west. He created a giant coin for the Museum of Route 66 in Lincoln, Ill., and this creation is being billed as the world’s largest penny at 12 feet in diameter and weighing in at one and a half tons. Inside the museum there’s a wax figure of Cline and a replica of his studio near Natural Bridge.
Cline has several of his creations at the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Ill., and five giants in Granite City, Ill. Overall Cline has created 25 giants or giant things for Route 66.
Each giant is delivered by an 18-foot trailer or tractortrailer. One of the giants was so big that its arms protruded from the transport.
The largest of his creations is in Springfield, Ill.
“I was under a lot of pressure to get Big Ron [a 60-foot giant] done at a restaurant called Motorheads. I was being assisted by Clinton Hatcher of 4DD Studios in Roanoke. He had cancer and wasn’t doing well, but he respected me so much and wanted to get this done if it’s the last thing he did.”
Big Ron holds an oversize Route 66 sign above his head and stands between two fiberglass gas pumps. It was Hatcher’s job to complete the giant gas pumps. He completed most of the job except for the handles. Cline finished the handles with resin and, appropriately, a portion of Clinton’s ashes.
Not all the jobs Cline is commissioned to do are seen to completion. Cline flew out to Tulsa this year to see where to put a 66foot dinosaur along U.S. 66. He ended up having to hand the job over to someone else because he didn’t have enough skilled workers to make it.
“That’s being built now and will be out there sometime this year,” he said.
The Santa Claus statue will be his last Route 66 project, but not his last creation. Cline wakes up every morning and sees big pieces of a puzzle. “When the day comes to an end and I haven’t finished the puzzle, I wake up the next day and it’s in pieces again.”
YOUNG MARK CLINE is pictured here in front leaning up against a giant fiberglass pirate outside Pirate Land campground in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
A TOURIST poses with Stella Atom outside Cosmic Curios in Tulsa, Okla. Each giant can take up to a month to create.
ROSIE THE RIVETER, the personification of the millions of women who worked in factories during World War II, stands tall outside The Pearl Shops inTulsa, Okla.
