The fibreglass giant standing beside US 290 east of Fredericksburg is Howard Huge, a Muffler Man who spent more than forty years in Maine before coming to Texas. He is one of the roughly twenty foot fibreglass giants that International Fiberglass of Venice, California, made in the 1960s and 1970s as roadside advertising for car businesses and restaurants: a Bow-tie model, with a bow tie at his collar, and an unusual pillbox cap. Marden's Surplus and Salvage, a Maine discount chain, bought him in the mid 1970s, gave him his name, and stood him outside several of its stores before retiring him to a warehouse in the 1990s.
He was rediscovered during a warehouse clean out in 2017, restored, trucked to Texas and raised on a purpose built sign in December 2018, outside a new tasting room called the Wine Garage that displayed classic cars. The hands that once held a muffler have held whatever the business behind him sold: a wine bottle and a wrench at first, and, after the owners turned the building into a brewery in 2023, a stein and a can of beer.
Muffler Men came in a handful of standard designs, so the same giant turns up across the country as a Paul Bunyan, a cowboy or a spaceman. Enthusiasts count and track the survivors, and Howard's pillbox cap is what sets him apart.
Getting there
30.2217, -98.7051
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
