AP – Georgia’s Big Peanut is back.
The roadside landmark along Interstate 75 in south Georgia was rededicated last week, nearly five years after an earlier version was felled by the winds of Hurricane Michael.
This time, the giant goober is made of sheet metal, not fibreglass.
It’s a symbol of pride in the heart of south Georgia’s peanut belt, as well as an enticement for tourists to pull off the highway in the small town of Ashburn.
The Ashburn-Turner County Chamber of Commerce raised nearly USD80,000 to replace the giant groundnut, which had saluted motorists since 1975 until it was blown down on October 10, 2018. The majority of the money came from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, although Turner County residents also raised thousands.
The peanut, atop a brick pedestal, has come to symbolise the county of 9,000 people, which is halfway between Macon and the Florida state line.
“I think it represents home,” said the chamber’s executive director Rebecca Miller.
“I know it’s a small town, but when you say, ‘Have you seen the peanut?’ That’s me.”
She said it’s also a fitting tribute to peanut farmers in a county where almost everyone is touched by agriculture. Community leaders spent about USD70,000 to replace the peanut, holding the remaining money for maintenance. They hired Cole Sercer, of Sercer Machine & Fabrication in nearby Rebecca, to make the new peanut.
Sercer said he and employees modelled the new nut after the remains of the one destroyed by the hurricane. But it’s made differently, with a metal pole and frame inside and dozens of custom-worked sheet metal panels forming the curvy shell of the nut.
Below is a golden crown with an aluminium frame and yellow plastic panels. The peanut is painted in brown and beige architectural paint, and in a modern touch, is now illuminated by LED lights at night.
