--- title: "43 giant presidents’ heads are sitting in the middle of a Virginia field" date: "2018-04-02" modified: "2020-10-21" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/43-giant-presidents-heads-are-sitting-in-the-middle-of-a-virginia-field/" categories: - "History" --- # 43 giant presidents’ heads are sitting in the middle of a Virginia field ![]() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzEZ8u5dSPM Croaker, Virginia is America's version of Easter Island. In the grassy field that belongs to a farmer named Howard Hankins sit the crumbling heads of 43 U.S. presidents. --- [A photo posted by Beautiful Abandoned Earth Pics (@abandonedearth)]() on Feb 3, 2016 at 9:45pm PST The heads are eighteen to twenty feet tall, remnants of President's Park, an open-air kind of museum. First opened in 2004, [the Mount Rushmore-inspired park]() was the product of Everette Newman, a Virginia native, and Houston-based sculptor David Adickes. It cost $10 million to open the park and a lack of visitors caused its bankruptcy six years later. Newman enlisted Hankins' help in destroying the heads. Instead, he moved the heads, weighing eleven to twenty thousand pounds each, to his farm ten miles away. It took him a week and cost upwards of $50,000. The move also substantially damaged the heads. [A photo posted by Beautiful Abandoned Earth Pics (@abandonedearth)]() on Jan 31, 2016 at 11:06am PST "I just feel it was very educational," Hankins [told the Daily Press](),. "To destroy that stuff didn't look right to me." The heads and necks cracked as cranes moved them onto trucks. Other damages occurred as well, including a large, eerie hole in the back of Abraham Lincoln's head. [A photo posted by Beautiful Abandoned Earth Pics (@abandonedearth)]() on Mar 26, 2016 at 4:39pm PDT Now, the heads are decaying. Ronald Reagan was struck by lighting and still wears the scar from the strike. The ground around the statues is overgrown with vegetation, and frogs now live inside James Madison. There isn't even a bust of President Obama because the failing park couldn't afford the sculptor's $60,000 fee. [A photo posted by Beautiful Abandoned Earth Pics (@abandonedearth)]() on Jan 29, 2016 at 5:08pm PST Hankins' field is not currently open to visitors. It's not intended to be a tourist attraction at all, but people still manage to sneak onto the farm to snap photos. He hopes to one day recreate the park into something people would like to visit, maybe even merging them with an existing museum. "I think I can build something the kids and the area can benefit from," he told the Daily Press. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()