Why Does This Delano Gas Station Have A Giant Chicken Statue Outside It?

Chances are if you've cruised on Highway 12, on your way out to South Dakota to go pheasant hunting, you just might have driven past a rather odd sight on the Southside of the road. Right outside a BP gas station, there stands a giant chicken statue, who appears to be doing his best Kris Lindahl impression. So what's with the statue?

The large fiberglass chicken statue stands at the corner of Highway 12 and County Line Road SE, on the edge of a BP gas station parking lot.

For that answer, we turn to a 2011 online article from the Delano Herald Journal in which Starrla Cray, a staff writer for the paper, wrote this about the chicken statue.

"Flippin’ Bill Hanson and his brother, Chicken Jon Hanson, also have nicknames related to their livelihoods.

Years ago, Jon and Bill had a burger shack on the corner of Highway 12 and County Line Road. When people saw Bill flipping burgers, he became known as Flippin’ Bill.

The brothers also used to sell a lot of chicken, so in 1987, Jon found a big white chicken statue in Wisconsin.

Bill bought the business a year later and named it Flippin’ Bills, but the colossal chicken remains a conspicuous landmark in Delano."

The chicken itself has reached a following of sorts, it's listed on RoadsideAmerica.com as "A big F.A.S.T. fiberglass chicken overlooks highway 12, its wings spread defiantly as if daring someone to fry him."

One publication lists the statue and being "famous across the nation" as the 'blue-eyed' chicken.

Flippin' Bills is still in existence, with weekly specials on chicken, you can follow the restaurant/diner here on social media.