Visit Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas

Each year, people come from far and wide to visit the State Fair of Texas at Fair Park in Dallas. Carnival rides, corn dogs, live music, games, livestock auctions — it’s a great time for kids and adults. If you’ve been, you know doubt remember Big Tex, the fair’s mascot who greets you with a “Howdy!” Big Tex has been around since 1952 and has quite the history. Texas Senator John Cornyn actually wrote a short piece in the Jacksboro Gazette-News about Big Tex that gave some great insight about Big Tex.

As Cornyn writes, many familiar with Big Tex may not know that he’s not just the Texas-size fair mascot. In the 1940s in Kerens, Texas, he was a different famous figure. In order to encourage Kerens residents to shop for holiday gifts at local stores instead of driving to Dallas or other nearby cities, the Chamber of Commerce came up with the idea to use iron-pipe drill casing and paper mache to build a 49-foot Santa. The huge figure, which Kerens officials claimed was the world’s largest Santa, even had a seven-foot beard fashioned out of rope.

From 1948 until 1949, the big Santa’s home was in the middle of the town’s main street. It was of course a hit at first, but after a while, people weren’t so keen on it, so they sold him for $750 to R.L. Thornton, the State Fair president, in 1951. An artist was hired to make Santa into a giant cowboy that was debuted at the State Fair of Texas the following year, 1952.

• Here are some more interesting facts about Big Tex that Senator Cornyn included in his article:
• Big Tex wears a 75-gallon cowboy hat
• His cowboy boots are size 70
• The artist used photos of himself, Will Rogers and Doc Simmons (a rancher) to model Big Tex’s face
• Dallas DJ Jim Lowe, Jr. voiced Big Tex for 40 years

This year, the State Fair of Texas opened on September 25 and will run daily until October 18. For more information, you can visit BigTex.com.