6-minute read

What is it about this “White House version of Easter Island”* that makes it such an attraction (bordering on obsession) to so many, even 10 years after the original site shut down?

There is a certain ineffable mystique about this place that goes beyond simple curiosity.  It’s not just the artistic beauty of the busts (although the detail in many of the sculptures is really quite exquisite), and it’s not just the attraction that many feel toward abandoned places.  For me, part of it is the vibrance of personality that comes out in the expressions, even when set in stone, but it’s the time-worn feel to the faces that really drives the fascination.

These heads have seen things – they’ve got that faraway look in their eyes as they gaze unblinkingly at the horizon.  They have witnessed the passage of time in their little corner of the universe, holding mute testimony to the circle of life.  Indeed, the pressure of history has driven George Washington to tears.

Photographing the Presidents Heads was this distant, hazy dream for me that seemed tantalizingly out of reach.  Ever since a friend told me about the place in early 2017, I had kept one eye on the possibility of going there, but the owner of the farm on which these huge concrete heads sat seemed intent on keeping people out.  There were many stories of people crossing “no trespassing” boundaries and risking arrest to get photos, something I was not inclined to do.

After all this time, was it possible my dream-shoot would be realized?  And at night no less?

I jumped online as soon as I got home to check it out, and sure enough, I found that John Plashal, a photographer and historian based in Richmond, VA, was hosting tours of the Presidents Heads, with the permission of the property owner.  I promptly signed up for the session on Sunday, August 11th, 2019. 

John and team – including Jimmy Powell, a professional light painter from the Stellar Media Group, and “Drone Guy” (whose real name I unfortunately never got) – exceeded my expectations to such a degree that I signed up for a second session that had been added on August 25th, thanks to a request from Raymie Chapman, host of the Low Light and Night Photography Meetup group. 

It was clear, hot, muggy, and buggy on the 11th, but a bit cooler and cloudier on the 25th.  Both days presented different and interesting weather and natural light conditions, so it was absolutely worth it to go twice.

The video linked below is what I cobbled together from stills shot with my Nikon D810, timelapse sequences shot with my Nikon D5300, and video snippets shot with my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone. Content from both trips is included. (For details on the music used, click the “Show More” more link on my YouTube channel).

Some background on the Presidents Heads, and how they ended up rubbing shoulders in a field in Croaker, VA:

• The statues were commissioned by local landowner Everette Newman, and built by sculptor David Adickes

• Presidents Park, an open-air museum that visitors could stroll through while reading plaques about each of the presidents, was launched near Williamsburg, VA in 2004

• By 2010, the park could no longer be sustained financially and went “bust” (*sorry*, couldn’t resist)

• Howard Hankins, owner of a farm and recycling facility in nearby Croaker, VA, and involved in construction of the original park, was hired to dispose of the busts, but instead of recycling them, he moved all the statues to his farm at his own expense

• It cost about $50,000 and took a team of 6 men three weeks to move the statues to the farm

• The statues are 20 to 22 feet tall, each weighing an average of 22,000 lbs

• All 43 US Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush are represented – only Barack Obama and Donald Trump are missing (although there is a small foot-high bust of Obama that is not on display since it was already stolen once, but fortunately returned when the thief was shamed into replacing the statue after appeals via social media)

• The sculptor, David Adickes, created another set of all 43 heads which were originally displayed near Deadwood, South Dakota – but that site also went out of business, so many of those statues are scattered around various sites (including trailer parks) in the Dakotas

For the full gallery of photos from both Presidents Heads trips, CLICK HERE

Here are some “fun facts” about a few of the Presidents gleaned from the short documentary “All the Presidents’ Heads” (linked below).  I decided to let my fingers do the Googling in an effort to corroborate these stories.  I turns out that while most are demonstrably true, there is some grey area around a couple of them:

• Thomas Jefferson founded the University of VA

  • This is true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

• James Buchanan was the only president that never married

  • This is true: https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Buchanan-president-of-United-States

• Warren Harding lost the White House china set in a game of poker

  • This seems to be true: https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/how-a-us-president-lost-the-white-house-china-in-a-game-of-cards/

• Martin Van Buren was the first person to use the phrase "OK"

  • Although he was neither the inventor, nor the first user, of the word, he did help popularize its usage due to his campaign slogan of “Vote for OK”, a reference to his nickname of “Old Kinderhook”: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-word-ok-was-invented-175-years-ago-180953258/

• James Garfield could supposedly write a sentence in Latin with his left hand while simultaneously writing a sentence in Greek with his right hand

  • Although Garfield was ambidextrous and versed in both Latin and Greek, among other languages, his “rumored” ability appears to be exaggerated: https://www.history.com/news/first-left-handed-president-ambidextrous-multilingual

• Grover Cleveland had to have a part of his jaw removed due to cancer, and it was replaced with rubber. This is true, and the backstory behind this event is very interesting, especially the attempted cover-up:

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland

  • https://www.npr.org/2011/07/06/137621988/a-yacht-a-mustache-how-a-president-hid-his-tumor

• Ulysses Grant got a speeding ticket on a horse

  • This turns out to be true, and it’s an interesting story: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65855/cop-who-gave-ulysses-s-grant-speeding-ticket

• Andrew Jackson had taught his parrot how to swear, and they had to remove it from his funeral to keep it from swearing

  • Multiple sources corroborate the story of the parrot being removed from the funeral as people were “horrified and awed at the bird’s lack of reverence”.

  • There seems to be some doubt, however, as to who actually taught the parrot how to curse, since it was apparently purchased from a tavern, where it could have picked up its “salty tongue”.  It is well noted, on the other hand, that Jackson was an inveterate curser, and could well have contributed to the “delinquency” of the parrot.

* That “White House version of Easter Island” quote comes from an article written in May, 2019 by Mary Jo Dilonardo for Mother Nature News.  Here is a link to that well-written article: https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/43-giant-heads-presidents-field-virginia

Additional Resources

Videos

There are many videos on the topic from various sources, but the best one I’ve seen – both from an artistic and informational standpoint – is a short documentary by Adam Roffman entitled “All the Presidents’ Heads”.  There are several sites featuring the video, but these are the most prominent:

• Adam Roffman’s Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/162689399

  • Posted April 13th, 2016

• National Geographic YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxX5YYTSBaI

  • Posted July 9th, 2017

David Adickes on the Presidents Heads

• Houston Public Media YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YjIMGzHx9g

  • Posted June 25th, 2014

  • Very interesting and informative interview with the sculptor of the heads, including a section on how the statues were made

 Inside the David Adickes museum in Huntsville: A chat with the artist about his life's journey

• CultureMap YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJVAZmCjV8

  • Posted July 31st, 2012

  • Unrelated to the Presidents Heads, but an interesting insight into the life and work of the sculptor and painter, David Adickes (for whom I have a lot more respect and admiration after seeing this short video)

 Drone 10 Video: All the Presidents' Heads

• WAVY TV 10 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcjfQb6ok5g

  • Posted April 14th, 2016

  • 2 minutes of drone footage, unrelated to Adam Roffman’s documentary of the same name

Abandoned president head statues

• Exploring with Purkz YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nckVtHdJ8TI

  • Posted February 16th, 2016

  • 7 minutes of drone footage set to music (including Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President) – nice visuals, but no informational content – I included this video since several others I saw “borrowed” footage from this one

 43 Massive Statues of US Presidents Lie Unused In Virginia Field

• NBC Nightly News YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGNVPqjlq5Y&t=3s

  • Posted March 15th, 2016

  • Standard 2-minute piece, done in the obligatory newscaster voice (is there a secret school somewhere that teaches newscasters how to affect that distinctive tone, cadence, and eye-rolling “humor”?)

American Artifacts: Presidents’ Heads

• American History TV C-Span: https://bit.ly/2OQEKgz

  • Posted February 11th, 2020

  • John Plashal narrates a special produced by C-Span to be aired on Sunday, Feb 16th, 2020 for Presidents Day (celebrated on Mon, Feb 17th). This is a 3-minute clip from that special.

 The list above is only a small sampling of the videos available from a standard Google or YouTube search.  Many of the pieces I saw were either inaccurate, or were not done very well, so I’ve included only these few here.

Articles/Blog Posts

Smithsonian Magazine: How 43 Giant, Crumbling Presidential Heads Ended Up in a Virginia Field

• Article from February 12th, 2016

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/what-43-decaying-president-heads-looks-180958129/?no-ist

Atlas Obscura: President Heads – 43 giant busts of U.S. presidents are sitting in a field in Virginia

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/president-heads

Atlas Obscura: David Adickes Studio

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/david-adickes-sculpture-gallery

WTVR, Channel 6 News: Why these presidential heads are sitting in a Virginia field

• Article from February 15th, 2016

• https://wtvr.com/2016/02/15/president-park-heads/

• This article contains the only pictures I’ve seen to date of the Presidents Heads in snow

Lonely Planet: Take a final night-time tour of the abandoned statues of presidents' heads in Virginia

• Article from April 20th, 2019

  https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/abandoned-presidents-heads-of-virginia

In early 2019, Howard Hankins was working on raising $1.5 Million to have the heads restored and moved, and no one was sure when that would happen, so there was a general scramble to see the heads “one last time”.  This is partly what led to my second trip – but as I write this in early February, 2020, it’s clear the heads have not yet moved since John is still offering tours of the site.  I signed up for another visit on March 21st, and will post another story about that trip as soon as possible.

There are many more photos in the gallery for this blog - click HERE to check those out.

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