Texarkana’s Lost Landmarks: Remembering the ‘Giant Rabbit’

Did you know there are giant rabbits all across the United Sates? No not the real rabbits but rabbit statues. There is one in the Dots ace hardware store in Texarkana and it has a pretty interesting back story.

The site Roadside Architecture give the brief history of the giant rabbit in Texarkana.

The Stop Agan Service gas station caught attention with a World War II surplus Cessna Bobcat airplane on its roof. The owner, L.E. Agan, had three or four other stations around town with planes on their roofs. They are all gone. This station opened in 1945 and featured a saddled-up, six foot tall jackrabbit. At that point, the statue was brown and had a fur coat.
The station closed in the late 1950s. In 1968, another building replaced it to house Big Daddy's Pawn Shop, run by Agan's daughter. Although the plane was removed, the rabbit remained for tourists to pose with for the camera. The pawn shop closed in 2000 and still remains vacant. The rabbit was still there in 2003.

I got a chance to talk to some folks who shed some more light on this giant rabbit. It was actually purchased for just one dollar back in 1943. And was almost destroyed in 2005. Here is an old photo of the rabbit and the airplane on top of the gas station.

It has now found a new home in the Dot's Ace Hardware store. The fully restored rabbit is in the store and is one of the unique features of this great Texarkana Hardware store. Many folks get their picture taken with it and here is how it looks now.

Do you know of any other 'Lost Landmarks' we need to feature?